The Mummy of Darkness
by Tashasaurous
Summary: AU: Set After Chain of Memories but before Riku's departure from Mickey. (Also explains Axel's delayed return to the Castle that Never Was). Riku and Mickey arrive in a new world that has powerful darkness of something neither of them nor people of that world expected. Can they save this world, or will this darkness prevail? Requested by bopdog111
1. Prologue: Dark Calling?

_**The Mummy of Darkness.**_

 **Author's note: Hello and welcome to a new crossover, this time outside of my usual crossover stories. I was originally gonna start on my Pokemon and Final Fantasy VII crossover fic(which is set within the SM Continuum Universe), but a fellow author named bopdog111 has requested for a Kingdom Hearts and the Mummy crossover story, and was further encouraged when I encouraged him to read my previous the Mummy crossover, so, I'll start with this first before I return to my planned stories.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Prologue: Dark Calling?

" _This...is hardly...the end... Your darkness-I gave it...all to you... My dark shadow...lingers... Someday... Someday... I will return!_ " The final words from his arch enemy, Ansem, continued to repeat in Riku's mind, even after the former had exploded and disappeared. But...did Ansem really just vanish?

Sora defeated Ansem, and yet the evil leader of the Heartless continued to live inside Riku's heart. A few times since arriving this strange castle that was filled with new enemies-Nobodies in strange black coats resided, Ansem nearly took over his body and his heart just like when he was tricked to work for Maleficent. Had Mickey not send his own spirit a few times to protect him even while the King had been trapped within the Realm of Darkness, Riku would've disappeared back into the Realm of Darkness himself and Ansem would've revived.

Thus all of Sora, Donald and Goofy's hard work in defeating would've been for nothing, especially when Sora himself was a target for Marluxia by using the power of a young girl named Namine who seemed to be similiar to Kairi. Still, Riku couldn't help but feel guilty in having relaying on king Mickey to protect him. It was strange, how Mickey so casually hanged out and spoke to him, as though he didn't care about his royal title.

Riku wondered where Mickey got to be so cheerful? Maybe that's why Riku was so comfortable wit him. Mickey and Sora were both very much alike. Mickey even said that the two of them are friends and that Riku can call him by his real name and not his royal title.

So after donning cloaks that would block out the Organization's senses in sensing Riku's darkness and Mickey's light for the time being from the mysterious DiZ and taking the middle road to dawn, the two ventured in a way of means of helping Riku control the darkness while he and Mickey decided to investigate the mysterious Nobodies, knowing that they are the new threat to the worlds despite them having returned to normal.

On the other hand, there were paths from all over the place in another fork in the road, or rather, multiple paths. Riku and Mickey both stopped and glanced around in thought. There were like at least five paths leading to places that seemed to somehow disappear like mist or paint.

"Which path should we go?" Mickey asked. He had no idea himself.

"I don't know...they all could lead to anywhere. I don't even have a clue on where we are." Riku admitted. They had been on an endless green field for who knows how long, and while it was much nicer than the paths within the Realm of Darkness, it still seemed to go on forever.

" _Go...to the path in the middle..._ "

Suddenly hearing a familiar dark voice, Riku's eyes widened and just seconds later he felt a jolt of familiar pain within his chest, as though something was cutting deep into his heart. Gasping sharply, he bend on his knees while clutching at his chest, eyes shut tightly as he hissed in pain which caught the attention of Mickey who had been gazing at one of the paths to his right only to find that it was somehow blocked by an invisible wall.

When Mickey heard his friend's gasp, he turned to see what was happening and his eyes widened in horror. The king immediately rushed over to Riku's side and cried out in alarm, "Riku! Are you alright?" gently holding the teen's arm in great worry. He suddenly then sensed the darkness causing pain in Riku's heart and his worry instantly grew.

Mickey didn't want to think that Ansem was still within Riku's heart. He didn't want to see his friend to suffer even further, not when the two of them had gone through so much together.

Panting while trying his best to ignore the pain, also not wanting to worry Mickey, Riku rested his hand onto his friend's shoulder, answering, "Yeah, I'm fine."

As Riku stood up slowly, with a worried Mickey gazing at him, the former blinked as his sight gazed at the path in the middle. That voice, and Riku hoped it wasn't who he thought it was, said to go to the path in the middle. Not the only that, the more he gazed at the path in the middle, the more he could actually...sense a powerful oder of darkness reeking, and became concerned. It was a powerful darkness that seemed to be...sleeping somehow.

For some reason, it was still strong, and Riku didn't like it one bit. There was trouble...one that shouldn't be ignored and for some reason, it was somehow spreading, creeping closer and closer to the field Riku and Mickey were at right now.

"Riku?" Mickey spoke, worriedly.

"I think...we should try the middle road." Riku spoke, almost absently. "I can't explain why but...I can't ignore that something's there, even though I'm not sure if it's such a good idea."

"What do ya' mean?"

"I...I heard a familiar voice." Riku reluctantedly replied. "It said to...go the path in the middle. And at the same time, I can sense a powerful darkness down this path and...it borthers me a lot."

Mickey frowned at this. While he didn't like the fact that he and Riku both had a feeling who the voice the teen heard was, and that it told him to go to the path in the middle, and that Mickey was concerned that it could be a trap, he suddenly felt that maybe there's something worth looking into on this road.

"Hmmm...Well, I tried lookin' at the other paths, but something strange is stopping me from going any further." Mickey thought. "Maybe we should check this one out. I'm not sure why, but I guess there's something that's happening."

"Yeah...Just hope I don't regret it." Riku eventually replied after a few moments.

The two glanced at each other, before staring at the path again. Deciding to take the risk and bracing themselves for whatever trail that would most likely be waiting for them, Riku and Mickey both continued on to the road in the middle.

As though walking into a corridor of light, after about ten minutes, Riku and Mickey eventually arrived at the end of the path which came to a surprise to them because they now found themselves in what seemed to be a deserted of some sorts. Riku's first thoughts was that it was Agrabah, but the more he looked around, the more that case seemed very unlikely.

"What're those buildings?" Mickey blinked in surprise.

Riku gazed at what Mickey was talking about and he too blinked in surprise. In a distance ahead of them, appeared to be old buildings in ruin on top of a sand dune. It looked as though it's been abandoned for several years. Centuries even.

"Hold on...I can sense strong scent of darkness..." Riku suddenly gapped and he can sense it. It was powerful, alright. Very evil.

"Sounds like trouble." Mickey thought once he realised what Riku was talking about.

Realising that this was a new world and that trouble wasn't too far behind, Riku and Mickey both glanced at each other and with a double nod of determination, the two quickly raced towards the ruins to find out where this darkness was coming from and if they had to, stop it from causing serious danger. Though they noticed that, by wearing these coats, despite them protecting the two from the Organization's radar, the real downside was that wearing black was causing them to feel the heat from the desert and the sun.

When the two arrived at the entrance, they found that the ruins already had people, though these people obviously don't live here. Instead, there were campsites, supplies, and even digging. Riku and Mickey both glanced at each other in confusion, before deciding to venture around while wondering what these people were looking for.

Eventually, while everyone else were ignoring them despite Mickey politely asking them, he and Riku eventually found four people on top of a hill with pillers, three men and one woman who was dressed in a black dress. She and one man were busy cleaning up very large mirrors, another man, who looked like an adventurer, was tying up rope around a piller while the rest of it went deep into a hole in the ground. The third man...he just lingered around.

"Excuse me." Riku called up once he and Mickey approached the four people who heard his voice and turned to face him and his friend in confusion and surprise.

"Oh, hello." The woman greeted. "Who are you two?"

"My name's Riku." Riku replied.

"And I'm Mickey." Mickey added.

The man who had been busy with the ropes blinked in confusion, before introducing himself, "Uh, nice to meet you, kids. I'm Richard O'Connall. This is Johnathan, his sister Evelyn, and that guy..." he grimaced at the stumpy man, before he eventually concluded, "He's the warden."

"How do you do." The woman, Evelyn or Evy for short, greeted.

After a few hand shakes and hellos, Richard, or Rick for short, asked, "What are you kids doing here?"

"We kind of got lost." Riku replied, though it was half a lie since he didn't want to reveal the knowlage of other worlds. "Actually, we were wondering what was going on here."

"Is there something everybody's lookin' for?" Mickey asked, curiously.

"You don't know this place?" Jonathan asked, surprised.

"Well, nope." Mickey answered.

"This is Hamunaptra." Jonathan replied.

"Hamunaptra?" Riku tilted his head slightly to the side in confusion. The name was strange and very new to him.

It seemed to be new to Mickey as well, because he asked, in confusion, "What's Hamunaptra?"

"The City of the Dead, where the earliest Pharaohs were said to have hidden the weatlh of Egypt." Evy explained, "It also contains an ancient book that I'm looking for."

"And since I've been here before," Rick groaned, "I been hired as a guide for her and her brother. Though, if I were you two, I'd leave straight away."

Riku suddenly felt that he knew why and couldn't help but ask, "Because this place is supicious?"

"Even worse. I think there's evil here. People say that Hamunaptra is cursed." Rick said.

"Cursed?" Mickey flinched a little.

Evy rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, it's just a silly fairytale."

Suddenly hearing that this place is cursed made sense to Riku. Curses always meant bad things happening, and since curses were evil as well, he had a feeling that it was that darkness he sensed. Whatever this curse was, this world, though how he and Mickey got here in the first place was a mystery in and on itself, was in danger.

He didn't like the looks of this.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry that this chapter was slow, bopdog111, but I will try and make it up for it in the future once I end up on a writers block again on my other stories. For now, at least this is a start. I'll post the next chapter when I'm able to.**


	2. Chapter 1: Strange Darkness

**Author's note: Here's an update to this story, fellow readers.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Strange Darkness.

As soon as he left Sora's group to handle Marluxia to rescue Namine, Axel decided that he no longer had any desires to be in this place, and since Castle Oblivion is like a giant maze, he couldn't find either the two 'guests' who came here earlier, or even what the Superior was looking for. The next thing to do was to make his report, report it to Saix, and then he can finally go home. On the other hand, he still couldn't find what he was looking for and decided to call it a day.

Hopefully he wouldn't be back here anytime soon.

He was walking through the halls which, though it didn't seem like it, were a total wreck and a hellva mess done by Sora and his friends.

"All righty then. Guess I'd better get my report together." Axel grumbled, "Man, what a pain." as he looked around the mess and damaged parts.

" _Castle Oblivion...was completely destroyed by the Keyblade wielder. As for the Organization...I was the only survivor._ " Axel practiced his lines to write his report, though he could hear the commotion above him and the battle that was going on., including Goofy's screams, 'Gawrsh! Ah-hyuck!"

"Or soon will be." Axel muttered to himself.

Sighing and deciding to make sure that he would be the only one, Axel muttered to himself, "Man, I wanna get back and have some ice cream." before wondering if Roxas would still be at the Clock Tower after each of his own missions.

Just then he felt a pressence behind him. A dark pressence. It was so strong that he could smell it. As being one to have the power of darkness, Axel could detect at least a brief of someone else's darkness who weren't using black coats. His skills aren't as good as the late Zexion's, but the scent behind him...it was reeking and he didn't like it, and at this moment, he didn't need a heart to like it or not.

"Who's there?" Axel demanded as he whipped around to see who was behind him. He tensed a little as the figure before him was another person. His first thoughts were either Riku or the Replica, before realising that wasn't the case. The figure, obviously a boy in his late or mid teens, his outfit was similiar to the replica's, except it was red and black, and his head...

It looked like a bit of an older Sora's but black, and his eyes...where had he seen them before? Whatever it was, Axel could sense powerful darkness and he immediately could tell that this kid meant trouble.

"Who're you?" Axel asked again.

"Me?" The boy smirked. "I'm just a little ghost from this castle's past."

Before Axel could ask anymore questions, the boy held out his hand and a gust of wind and darkness bursted out, forcing the red-headed nobody only to shield himself with his arms while struggling against the winds, while behind him a corridor of darkness opening him that led to who knows where.

"W-what are you-!?" Axel gasped sharply as the boy suddenly launched forward and punched him in the stomach, which forced him to lose his footing and before long the redhaired man was swallowed up into the portal yelling as it closed with him inside.

The boy smirked evilly before opening another corridor of darkness behind him as he said to himself, "This'll give the master a bit of a heads up. I'd be changing the future, but so what?" before vanishing into the darkness himself.

* * *

It's been an hour since Riku and Mickey had met the travellers in a new they were in right now. Despite the risks of Riku getting detected by the Nobodies, and Mickey getting into trouble, the sun was so hot that wearing the coats was making them sweat and nearly dehydrate. So in desperate measures, both were given back-backs by Rick to put their coats in after taking them off to reveal their travelling clothes.

The two of them had decided to stick around since both had a feeling that whatever it was here in this ruins of the City of the Dead was very dangerous and would only warn Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan and the Warden if needed. Both of them helped to clean the mirrors since they had nothing else to do.

"Phew!" Mickey panted as he wiped heat sweat from his forhead, before trying to fan himself with his hand as he couldn't help but grumble, "Gosh, sure is hot around here."

"What would I give to swim at the beach back at home." Riku agreed. The heat was getting to him too, and the thought of cooling off always reminded him of the beach back on Destiny Islands, which also gave him memories of hanging out with Sora and Kairi.

When he had entered the illusion of his home back at Castle Oblivion, even though it was fake, Riku had never thought he'd miss the salty breeze of the winds and the smell of the sea air, the seagulls flying freely.

"You come from the seaside?" Rick couldn't help but have overheard, once he finished making sure that the rope was tight enough so that no one would be hurting themselves if the rope was loose.

"Yeah, I grew up on the islands." Riku replied with a nod.

"Like Fiji or something like that?"

While Riku didn't know where Fiji was, it sounded like his home, so he just shrugged with a nod. Before long he and everyone else began to carefully climb down the rope, down into the ground and into a dusty, dark, old and creepy ruined room. Instantly, Riku felt a mental flinch. The scene of the powerful darkness was stronger here, meaning that it was very close.

"Wow...sure is a creepy place." Mickey thought.

"Do you realise we are standing inside a room no one's entered in over 3,000 years?" Evy muttered with a smile, looking around.

"Whoo! What is that god-awful stench?" He asked as he panted and let go of the rope, shaking his hands to get rid of the rope burns. Jonathan then sniffed as the Warden climbed down the rope next to him, and realised that the smell came from the stumpy man.

"Oh." Jonathan said.

Evy then went over to one of the mirrors, dusting away the cobwebs and dust, turning to the sunlight above, saying, "And then there was light." and true to her word, the sun reflected off of the mirror and hit the others, lighting the room like a light off the switch.

"Wow!" Mickey said, amazed. "That's a neat trick!"

"I'll say. That's pretty cool." Riku thought, grinning. It made him mentally wish the Realm of Darkness had a neat trick like this. Then again, that realm had no sun, so it would've been useless.

"Oh my god." Evy gapped, stunned as she gazed around the room now that it was filled with light, which was added by the flaming torches. "It's the Sah-netjer!"

"Sah-what?" Riku blinked, confused on the word.

"A Preparation Room." Evy continued.

"Preparation for what?" Rick asked, as Jonathan lit another torch from his own.

"Mummies, my friends." Jonathan added, "This is were they made the mummies."

While Riku was dumbfounded by this, Mickey shuddered all of the sudden and from what the teen could see, the king looked actually spooked and freaked out, and was quivering as he asked shakily, "M-mummies? Right here?"

Realising that Mummies are in fact real, since Riku was never a believer in them until now, he kept a close watch around the area as he and everyone else followed Rick who, tensed at the mention of Mummies, pulled out a gun, just in case something dangerous attacked. No wonder Riku felt uneasy since coming here. If there were Mummies here, than there must be one that was evil and powerful, which meant it had a strong scent of darkness, and if the place was cursed, then Heartless would no doubt jump out and attack.

Still, Riku glanced at Mickey and whispered, "No offense, but you're scared of Mummies?"

"Well, sorta." Mickey admitted with a shrug, before whispering so that the others wouldn't hear them, "Heartless and other kinds of monsters I can handle, and other villians even though they are scary, but mummies and ghosts are different stories. They tend to jump outta nowhere and scare everybody."

"That's true." Riku chuckled. "Halloween Town had plently of ghosts all over the place."

The two then fell silent as they followed the others as they crept into the dark tunnel, the torches as their only source of light, ready for anything and everything to happen. Suddenly, they all heard a loud skittering travel through the air above them and all whirled around trying to find what was making the noise, before it fell silent again. Riku nearly summoned his Soul Eater and Mickey had been inches close in summoning his Keyblade. Thankfully both managed to hold their weapons off.

"What was that?" Jonathan asked.

"Sounds like...bugs." Rick replied.

Riku thought differently, though. To him and Mickey, it sounded similiar to Heartless, which meant that they were close. Not only that, when they eventually arrived in a another large room, and in front of them, was the legs of a large statue that was same as the surface. He remembered that Evy mentioned that the statue, Anubis, she called it, had it's legs buried underground, where the secret compartment containing the Book of Amun-Ra(whatever that was) was held.

"A-are you sure this place is safe?" Mickey asked, looking around nervously.

"Definately not." Rick answered.

' _Yeah, I can smell very foul darkness here. It's worse than Ansem._ ' Riku thought to himself.

"The secret compartment should be hidden somewhere inside here." Evy said as they all moved closer. Suddenly, there was another sound, a distant wind and roar that made him all whip around and look again, but found nothing. Rick, Jonathan, and the Warden grew out guns, while Riku and Mickey both kept Evy close since they couldn't risk in summoning their weapons just yet. The moaning was getting closer as they all backed up to the wall of the statue, all preparing to take care of whatever's on the other side.

They all jumped out and were face to face with fifteen other men who also had their weapons out, except for one man in a red fez(or vez), all of them giving out yells, before all sighed in relief as they lowered their weapons. Everyone all sighed in relief.

"You scared the bejeuses out of us, O'Connell." One of the men, named Handerson, said in relief, as he and the others pulled back their guns.

"Likewise." Rick replied with a grin.

After a short pause, Mickey then said politely, "Well, hah, have a nice day fellas. We were just um-"

"Push off!" The man, in the red fez who was named Allen, told Mickey, "This is our dig site."

"That's not nice!" Mickey suddenly said, glaring. Immediately, the men with guns all raised at each other, leaving Riku, Mickey and Evy out of it.

"This here's our statue, friend." Another man named Daniels said.

"I don't see your name written on it...pal." Rick stated.

"Yes, well, there's only six of you, and fifteen of me." A whimpy, Arabain looking man named Beni replied, "Your odds are not looking great, O'Connell."

Rick turned his gun to Beni's face, and muttered, "I've had worse."

"So have we." Riku decided to add in.

"Riku..." Mickey whispered a bit warningly. He didn't want his friend to get involved in this.

"Yeah, me too." Jonathan agreed, causing Rick and Riku to look at him, dumbfounded, and he nodded at them with an expression that he did have worse, though it was rather unbelievable.

"Oh for goodness sakes," Evy stepped in, having enough of this. "Let's be nice, children. If we're going to play together, we must learn to share."

She then locked eyes with Rick and said, "There are other places to dig." while he gave the rivals an unfriendly smile and lowered his gun, as did the others who had guns.

Riku and Mickey both glanced at each other before sighing, wondering on how women always tend to take matters in their own hands. Then again, girls are always unpredictable and both of them should know, because they both hanged out with girls as well as other guys.

"Girls." Mickey rolled his eyes. It brought back some memories of when he couldn't understand Minnie sometimes.

"Girls." Riku agreed, thinking back of when Kairi would do something neither he or Sora would understand. Selphie too.

"Girls." Handerson grumbled, though he was heard and Evy gave him a fumed glare which made him nearly pass out.

* * *

A little while later, Riku and the others went a floor lower down and began digging through the ceiling which, according to Evy, they were underneath the statue and hoped to reach the compartment to get the book before their rivals did. But that's not what Riku was thinking they would find.

Something was within the ceiling. Something evil with darkness.

After a while, they took a break and Jonathan opted to play golf. The Warden had wandered off somewhere, and Mickey and Riku both hoped that nothing would happen. But they knew that if they went after him, they would easily get lost.

Evy was telling them and Rick about a few details on how mummies were made from dead people, which Mickey instantly knew that he was going to be having nightmares that were a lot worse than his horrible dreams of being devoured within the Realm of Darkness.

"So let me get this straight." Rick began uneasily, "They ripped out your guts and place them inside jars?"

"And they take our your heart as well." Evy continued.

"That's an information I didn't want to know." Riku cringed as he tried to shake away memories of when he had to fight to keep his heart from being controlled by Ansem, which he hissed softly as the pain of darkness hit him again, but he did his best to hide it.

' _It's so terrible to take our people's hearts like that._ ' Mickey thought to himself. He knew that having a heart devoured by the Heartless was horrible enough, and he had certain memories of his previous adventures he didn't want to think about, before he became a Keyblade wielder.

To their dismay, Evy continued as though she was excited to reveal this other information, "Oh, and you know how they took out your brains?"

"Evy, I don't think we need to know this." Jonathan said as he looked as his sister.

"I certainly don't." Mickey agreed.

She ignored the two and concluded while mimicking in demostration, "They'd take sharp red-hot poker, stick up your nose, scramble things about a bit, and rip it all out through your nostrils."

Riku, Mickey and Rick all gently held their own noses in sympathy while becoming pale at the very thought and images that entered their minds. "That's awful." Mickey muttered.

"And painful." Riku agreed.

"It's called mummification. You'll be dead when they do this." Evy told them.

"That's it." Riku groaned, "I'm gonna be having nightmares for the rest of my life."

' _That's worse than the nightmare I had of a mad scientest trying to use me and Pluto for experiments._ ' Mickey thought to himself, shuddering as though he was feeling cold.

"For the record," Rick spoke up to Jonathan, "If I don't make it outta here, don't put me down for mummification."

"Likewise." Jonathan replied, having the same thought as the rest of them. He then took another swing, and seconds later, for some strange reason, the force from it caused a large object to fall and crash down before them. Everyone's eyes widened in dumbfoundment, and Jonathan slowly turned around in a hint of embarrassment at what just happened.

Mickey coughed at the dust as it cleared, before asking, "Holy cow...is that a coffin?"

" _Darkness...supreme darkness_." The voice in Riku's head spoke again, and the teen had to shut his eyes tightly, before returning his gaze to the coffin that fell through the roof and realization hit him hard. So this is where the darkness was coming from.

But how? Dead people don't produce darkness...do they?

"Buried at the...base of Anubis." Evy realised. Wondering who it was, she then thought, while feeling rather uneasy herself, "He must've been someone with great importance...or he did something very naughty."

Mickey stepped cautionly closer, as he said, "I don't think naughty is the right word for this fella. I'm not sure why, but I gotta a feelin' that he did something...so bad that he was, um..."

"Evil." Riku concluded in agreement. "I don't like this one bit. Maybe it's best this guy is left alone."

"Oh for goodness sakes." Evy shook her head. "How can someone dead be any problems now?"

Oh if only she knew what they were in for.

* * *

Meanwhile, in one of the dark halls within the chambers, Axel had just been spat out of the corridor of darkness that kid in the red and black outfit, the Ansem/Riku wanna be, had shoved him into. Having landed on his back, he ended up hitting his head against the solid stone wall and groaned as the corridor closed.

"Ow..." Axel grunted, rubbing his sore head. "Okay, whoever that kid was, he's definately just as dangerous as Riku."

Pulling himself up and standing while groaning, Axel looked around and frowned. Wherever this place was, he didn't like it one bit. The corridor was so dark, though he could make out the stone walls and traces of aging cobwebs almost all over the place. Fortunately for him, being the flurry of dancing flames, and having the power over fire, Axel lit up a small flame in his hand to act as a torch and it lit up the room slightly, though it did give him a clearer view on where he was.

"Never heard of this world before." The redhead thought, and he knew that he was in another world. Suddenly he sensed something furrowed his eyes. There were two scents of darkness around here...

However, one of them was somehow blocking the other, which made it difficult to figure out what or whoever else here was. He should get out of here and head back, otherwise he'd be in trouble.

But when Axel attempted to summon a corridor himself, instead he hissed suddenly instead of the dark portal seeping out as he expected, a jolt of electricity shocked his hand instead, causing him to lose focus and nearly turn out his source of light. Shocked(no puns intended), he tried again, but was met with the same result.

"You're not going anywhere until the threat of this world is cleared up." A familiar voice spoke behind him.

When Axel turned to look, he glared as the same boy back at Castle Oblivion was there. Realising what just happened, the redhead demanded, "What'd you do, kid?"

"Oh, I just blocked out the exit of this world." The boy shrugged. "So meaning, no one comes in, and no one goes out, until this world's darkness is defeated."

"Oh, and you're suggesting that I handle it or just disappear here?" Axel said in sarcasm. "Sorry, kid. But I'm not hangin' around with some creep in a place like this. If I didn't know any better, I'd be going up against mummies or something."

The boy chuckled, before saying, "You're not the only one stuck here. There's another who had just returned from the darkness, because I can sense him. Not that either of you or anyone else would be leaving here alive."

Axel didn't like what he was hearing, and immediately he gasped in shock when he realised what this kid was talking about. The only other person that had escaped from darkness, other than King Mickey, was Riku. But how...

"See you later." The boy smirked as he disappeared into darkness.

"Hey!" Axel shouted as he rushed over to stop the boy, but was too late. Grunting in frustration, he sighed before looking around. If Riku was here...then something was wrong within this world.

Suddenly a scream was heard behind him, and when Axel turned around just as the Warden came from another tunnel, holding his head as he then ran into the direction into another tunnel as his screams continued.

Despite the sight being weird, Axel frowned again. It wasn't normal for people to hold their heads screaming like that.

This world must be very dangerous. But then...where were the Heartless?

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not mentioning Vanitas's name until later on because he is very mysterious. Everyone else were obvious. I'm hoping to get fighting scenes next in the next chapter, so please look forward to it.**


	3. Chapter 2: A Warning

**Author's note: Here's an update to this story, fellow readers. Warning: One part of this chapter will give you goosebumps.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 2: A Warning.

As the group dusted off the sand and dirt that still slightly covered the coffin, or sarcophagus, though Riku and Mickey both still had a terrible feeling of this thing. They wanted to believe that Evy was right that dead people don't cause any problems, but they knew better than that.

"So um, who is it?" Mickey asked.

" _'He That Shall Not Be Named_. _'_ " Evy read the ancient writing and translated. Rick blew more dust off, to reveal a star-shaped thing that looked like an ancient fashioned keyhole. The group quirked eyebrows at this.

"This looks like some sort of lock." Rick thought.

"I'd never seen a keyhole like that before." Mickey thought.

"Me neither. What kind of a person would've made a keyhole like this shape?" Riku wondered.

Jonathan then commented, "Well, whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out."

"Yeah, no kidding." Riku agreed.

Rick nodded in agrement as he commented, "It would take us a month to crack into this thing without a key."

"Yeah, a key that's shaped like that." Mickey agreed. While he knew well that the Keyblade can unlock any lock, he wasn't about to risk in opening this thing. He'd rather spend a month cracking into this thing than unlock it with his Keyblade.

That's when something hit Evy as she muttered, "A key...?" before realising something as she then went to her bag, babbling, "A Key! A Key! Now that's what he was talking about!"

"Huh?" Mickey asked.

"Who was talking about what?" Riku asked to Rick and Jonathan who both shrugged in similiar confusion.

"The man, the one on the barge, the one with the hook! He was looking for a key!" Evy replied, in a hint of crazy excitement as she opened it's strange wings.

"Hey, that's mine!" Jonathan pouted.

Evy didn't listen as she placed it onto the keyhole. It was a perfect fit. The others looked at her, impressed.

"Whadd'ya know." Mickey thought, blinking while impressed.

Evy looks at them happily and proudly. Suddenly a few seconds later the Warden's scream was heard and echoed through the halls, alarming everyone. They all immediately rushed to investigate, while Jonathan stumbled back to get his box before following the others.

When they entered the passage, the Warden came out of another room, holding his head as he continued to scream, before he ran passed all of them, screaming away as he hands waved around like crazy, crawling his hands on his head before he then ran right into the wall in front of him, ramming his head into it and then just dropped backwards, and just layed there on the ground, his scream cut off into a deathly silence.

The group stared in shock, horror, disbelief and confusion. Just then Riku sensed something and turned half-way to gaze behind him, and could've sworn he caught the glimpse of red and black from around the same corner the Warden had came from during his screaming fest.

He expected something to appear, but then again, whoever else was around the corner, must've hid before they were caught. Or maybe it was his imagination.

"What's matter, Riku?" Mickey asked, once he looked away from the Warden who was now dead and he didn't want to think about it. Though seeing his friend gaze at the corner thankfully eased away the thoughts of a dead man before him and the others, though he still felt rather sick in the stomach.

"I thought I saw..." Riku began, before shaking his head and shrugged, "No, nevermind. Probably just my imagination."

"I think we should call it day." Rick decided. "Let's go."

Everyone else nodded, while Evy was a bit shocked and feeling a bit sick herself.

However, when the five of them re-entered the coffin room, little did the group know that it was Axel who had just followed the Warden only to hide when Riku nearly caught him. So the kid was here, with that king. The redhead frowned as he peaked around the corner again, and saw that the man that layed on the ground was indeed dead.

Hiding again, he thought deeply on the situation of whatever darkness was here. Axel could feel the powerful scent of darkness within the other room more than Riku's darkness. _'If that guy died just because something was in his head, then this place really is dangerous. Worse part is, that kid that brought me here blocked off all passages. How did he do that, though?_ ' he thought to himself.

Whatever it was, Axel started to think that it would be overwhelmly powerful as Riku, and possibly more stronger than the Superior.

* * *

Riku, Mickey, Rick, Evy and Jonathan returned to the campsite and while Rick went to talk to the rival campers, the rest of them were talking about the events that happened today. Riku could still sense the powerful darkness, but neither he or Mickey said anything.

"What do you suppose killed him?" Evy asked.

"I noticed he was holding his head like something was...well, you know." Riku shrugged.

Mickey frowned in concern and agreed, "I think Riku's right. Besides, it couldn't have just been a normal headache for somethin' like that to happen."

Rick by then returned and seated between Riku and Evy, and said, "Seems our friends had a little misfortunte of their own today." before continuing while looking every uneasy, "Three of their diggers were uh...melted."

"What?" Evy exclaimed in disbelief, while the others held looks of disbelief and horror.

"But how?" Mickey asked.

Rick answered, "Pressurized salt acid. Some kind of...ancient booby trap."

Mickey swallowed nervously as he gazed around, and muttered, "M-maybe this place really is cursed." while Jonathan threw a small piece of dirt into the campfire, and just seconds after that, an erie gust of wind blew across the fire. He, Mickey, Rick and even Riku all pulled faces of discomfort.

Evy rolled her eyes at their expressions. "Oh for heaven sake, the four of you!"

"You seriously don't believe in curses?" Riku asked with a quirked eye-brow.

"No I don't." Evy answered, "I believe that if I can see it and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe."

"Yeah, well, I believe in anything that's impossible is really possible." Riku decided to say.

"I believe in being prepared." Rick said as he cocked his shothand expertly with one hand.

Mickey shuddered a little, "Well I believe in all kinds of ghost stories. You never know which one of them could actually happen."

Riku smirked a little, saying, "I don't think all of the ghost stories are real, but you do have a good point."

"I wonder what our friend the Warden believed in." Jonathan thought once he found nothing in the dead man's bag...except for a broken bottle he then found and pulled out. Reading the lable, he smirked, "Glenivet. Twelve years old! Well, he may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste." before taking a drink.

Rick, Riku and Mickey all rolled their eyes at Jonathan's habits of berverages, when suddenly all three of them heard the whining of horses and turned to look behind them and the others.

"Uh oh! We've got company!" Mickey gasped.

Immediately Rick handed his shotgun to Evy while saying, "Stay here." before going off to investigate.

"I'm going too." Riku decided and quickly followed.

"Riku, wait for me!" Mickey cried out, leaping to follow the others.

"Wait, wait for me!" Evy added.

"Evy! 'Cuse me, but didn't O'Connell just say 'stay here'?" Jonathan protested as he followed his crazy sister and companions.

As soon as the five of them left, Axel peaked out from the hole the group had came from, since he followed them and had waited for the right moment to finally get out of the tunnels and into the open air so that he could figure out what was going on. Seeing the group just left to investigate on something, he sighed as he came out completely.

"Finally!" Axel sighed. "I thought I'd have to sneak out while everyone was sleeping." only to hear some kind of whooping fill the air and looked into the area below him from the hill he was on and his eyes widened as a bunch of men in black robes and masks attacking everyone while on horseback, their weapons were either swords or guns. Curious to see what was going on, Axel went closer until he hid behind a tall stone piller to make sure he wasn't seen.

All around there was a fight going on, the campers fighting back, though there was casualties like diggers being sliced or shot to death.

What caught Axel's attention, however, was Riku who had secretly summoned his Soul Eater and clashed against one of the robed men's swords, dodge-rolling out of the way before kicking at his opponent's legs which caused the man to stumble over and fall onto the ground. Riku then quickly got up and knocked the back of the man's head with the back of his weapon, briefly rendering him unconscious.

Riku then rolled out of the way when another came before he leaped into the air and knocked him off his horse and whacked him in the face, rendering him unconscious as well.

Mickey was knocking out the invaders as well, not wanting to kill anyone since he sensed that these people were not evil, though that begged the question on what was really going on. He did a triple-air-somersaults while knocking one of the men out with his Kingdom Key-D Keyblade.

Suddenly he caught off-guard when another man knocked his Keyblade out of his hand, much to his shock. Mickey had to leap backwards to avoid this man before he realised he began to have trouble in dodging.

"Mickey!" Riku cried out as he leaped in and grabbed hold of the king while avoiding the sword from the other man, before Rick jumped onto the man and knocked him off his horse.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked his friend as the two stood up.

"I'm okay. Thanks, Riku." Mickey smiled briefly, before he and Riku both turned to see that Rick had brought out a dynamite that was close in going off. The man who's mask fell off and was known as Ardeth Bay, glared at Rick.

He then decided to briefly surrender and called out, "Enough!" making everyone stop. Ardeth then glared at Rick, Riku and Mickey before saying, "We will shed no more blood. But you must leave. Leave this place or die. You have one day."

With that, Ardeth climbed back onto his horse before shouting something in another language, then took off with his men and left the stunned campers and away from the ruins. Even as the men left, Riku looked very concerned and Mickey suddenly had a gut feeling that there was more to this place than the two of them thought when they first came here.

"Who were they?" Riku asked.

"Desert people." Rick replied as he helped Evy up when she fell to the ground after shooting dead one of the robed men in her panic. "They value water, not gold."

"Gosh, I wonder what that fella was talking about?" Mickey thought, before thinking about it and came up with a theory, "Maybe they know that this place is so dangerous they don't want anybody to be here."

"If that's the case, then I wouldn't blame him." Riku said, though he did add, "On the other hand, I can't understand what is here that is so dangerous, though I do have a feeling that we're going to regret it."

While everyone was poundering over the incident that just happened, Axel, still from his hiding spot was thinking about what the man that confronted Riku, Mickey and Rick. If those people wanted everyone to leave the city, then that meant it confirmed Axel's supicsions.

' _Maybe this place is more dangerous than I thought. If only I could RTC and tell Saix about this._ ' Axel thought to himself.

* * *

Either way, he was stuck.

Later that night, everyone went to sleep while possibly dreaming or maybe thinking about tomorrow's events, though that still left Riku very uneasy, and Mickey certainly didn't like this place very much at all. Either way, the two of them were not having such a good night's sleep at all.

In Riku's case, it was worse than that.

* * *

 _Riku didn't know where he was or how he got here. All he knew was that he was being restrained and he was practically terrified. He could hear screaming from terrified men all around him, while other men were doing torturous things to them. Two men were holding him by the shoulders, and then, to his horror and disgust, they were forcing his tongue to be sticking out._

 _His eyes then widened in terror as another man, in some kind of helmet that was shaped like...like the head of Anubis, approached him. Riku tried to fight his way out, but it was too late, and he shut his eyes tightly, tears escaping as he gurgled as scream as his tongue was cut off._

 _Then seconds later, he found himself being wrapped tightly in white cloths of some kind before his vision was darkened and he could feel being put into something. He muffled a scream as he felt the familiar claws of Heartless slash at his chest, attempting to claim his heart._

 _He then heard laughter...evil laughter...of Ansem._

 _"I told you, Riku." Ansem's voice spoke evilly. "Your heart is mine!"_

* * *

Biting back a scream, Riku jolted up right and panted as he could feel cold sweat on his forehead. Seeing that he wasn't wrapped up, and not imprisoned, and also making sure that his tongue was still intact and in his mouth, and remembering where he was, with his sleeping companions around him, he sighed in great relief.

' _It was just a nightmare._ ' Riku thought to himself. Sighing and still feeling the intensed rawness from the nightmare, and shuddering when he thought he could still feel the claws of the Heartless on his chest, he just knew that right now, he wouldn't be getting any more sleep.

"Yikes!" Mickey's startled cry startled Riku who turned to see that his friend had jolted awake, and by the king panting and paranoid glancing around, it was easy to see that he had just woken up from a nightmare as well.

"You okay, Mickey?" Riku asked as he approached his friend, before taking a seat next to him.

Realising that the teen was awake, and that he had just escaped from a nightmare, Mickey sighed in relief before chuckling nervously, "Y-yeah, I'm okay. Just had a terrible nightmare." shuddering as he tried to not think about it.

"Same here." Riku sighed.

"Gosh, I don't think I'll be going back to sleep any time soon now." Mickey thought, rubbing his arms as though he was freezing.

"Who would? After nightmares like ours, I certainly don't plan on getting back to sleep either. Looks like we're in for a rough night." Riku agreed.

Sighing, Mickey grumbled, "Aw, I hate it when I get nightmares that feel so real. Haven't had one so scary in a real long time."

' _Tell me about it._ ' Riku thought. He just had a feeling that, ever since Evy told them, Rick and Jonathan about how mummies were made, that he'd be having nightmares. Turned out he was right.

What he didn't know, however, was that there was more to his dream than he thought. There was also Ardeth's warning to leave this place. But Riku and Mickey both had no idea what it was, though.

* * *

At another part of the City of the Dead, Axel had found a decent place to rest and sighed, having just woken up from an unusual dream himself. Since then, he couldn't get to sleep much either, especially since the rocks at this place were practically uncomfortable.

"What wouldn't I give to get home and sleep in my nice, cousy, bed." Axel grumbled, yawning as he, thankfully, began to feel drowsy again.

* * *

From a hill just outside of the ruins, the boy in the red and black outfit smirked evilly as he said to himself, "I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the night that those idiots will regret in ever coming here."

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry that it's a bit shorter than the last chapter and the fight scenes aren't as good as I thought, but I was running out of ideas of this story at the time and I'm edging to continue my other ones or start on my planned new stories.**

 **Hope you fellow readers still liked this chapter.**


	4. Chapter 3: The Curse

**Author's note: This chapter's going to reveal another twist.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 3: The Curse.

The next morning everyone returned to the sites underneath the City of the Dead to continue their search for what they were looking for. Axel on the other hand went outside of the entrance and glanced around. Too bad for him that everywhere he looked was nothing but sand, hills and more sand. No matter how much he tried to summon a corridor around the corner of a hill(he was pretty certain those guys in the robes were close by), he was met with the same result as yesterday and it was really getting on his nerves.

"When I find that spiky-black haired kid, he's gonna get it." Axel growled softly to himself. It was all that kid's fault that he was stuck in this world until it's crisis is averted. Axel had no idea what the boy was talking about and he certainly didn't want to stick around to find out.

The darkness around this area and Ardeth's warning yesterday didn't help either. Sighing, he leaned back and groaned, "Man, I'm thirsty. No wonder desert people value water more than anything else. Even just one drop of rain is probably hard to come by these days."

Which also made him wonder how those guys in the black robes could fight and survive with maybe as little water as they get. Maybe they were adapted to it.

Just then he felt a pressence to his right and Axel jumped back before the sword that belonged to Ardeth Bay could stab him or slice his head off. The redhead restrainted himself from summoning his Chakrams and just stood there, both men holding serious looks on their faces. Neither of them knew what the other was thinking, but both kept vigilant.

In the end, it was Axel who spoke first and said, nonctunately, "Lemme guess. You think I'm with those guys that made camp in those old ruins, right?"

"I do not recall seeing you last night, but you cannot be a Medjai because your coat is different." Ardeth replied, "But you cannot stay here either. You must leave or die."

"Relax, I wasn't even plannin' on staying anyway." Axel shrugged dismissively. "Just needed a direction to a nearest town or village so I can get a proper room service."

Ardeth did not lower his sword, though he did ask, "Then why are you here?"

"The truth? I have no idea." Axel admitted, though he was reluctanted in revealing about what really happened. "Though you'd like to blame a kid with unusual yellow eyes for that one and a stupid looking outfit. I have no idea how he managed, but he's the one that brought me here. Didn't know a place a like this even existed and considering how creepy it is, I don't even wanna know what's here."

"It's best that you do not know." Ardeth replied as he took a cautioned step closer. "And it's best that the other outsiders never know either. If they do find it, then they will unleash the next apocylpse."

Axel cringed at the last word in the opposite man's sentence, before sighing in annoyance and grumbled, "I was afraid someone would mention something like that." which also made sense to the very dangerous darkness he sensed. Sure he wasn't a good guy and he knew that certainly-trained assassions were trained to kill and killing was always a bad thing-but that didn't mean he wasn't careful either. The question was, why did that kid send him to a place like this anyway?

What was the boy's intention?

"What do you know of it?" Ardeth questioned.

"I don't _know_ it. It's...more like a bad gut feeling." Axel answered. It was more than that, but he wasn't about to reveal that detail about the power of light and darkness.

Ardeth didn't say anything, though he did lower his sword and approached closer to Axel who edged back a little cautionly. To the latter's surprise, the man in the robe pulled out a flisk with water and a napkin bag of food in a container, giving them to the redhead who gave him a questioning look on the sudden generosity.

"These will last you for three days until you reach the closest village. Take little by little in order to survive. Stay away from here." Ardeth answered the unasked question, before turning and walked away.

Axel blinked before gazing at the water and food he was given, and felt very uncomfortable and he wasn't supposed to feel anything. On the other hand, he called out, "Uh, thanks." before Ardeth was out of sight.

Still, if those people were concerned about this place, then the attack last night was not random at all. Axel then realised that not even Riku or King Mickey had any idea on what they were about to face.

He just hoped that they wouldn't regret it later.

* * *

Back with Riku and his group...

Riku and Mickey both didn't have a good nights sleep after awakening from their nightmares last night. In fact, they didn't get back to sleep at all and instead were on high alert on everything around them, and both could've sworn they felt a pressence of darkness just jolt on the ground above them where the rival diggers were at, though they couldn't be certain.

It didn't help that tiredness was making them less focused.

"Ooh! I've dreamt about this since I was a little girl." Evy said excitedly as Rick and Jonathan had opened up the coffin and had pulled out another coffin that had the same keyhole and had it standing up to make things easier for them to see who it was.

But the darkness Riku was sensing was much more powerful than he ever felt, and he to mentally tell the thoughts of Ansem(he hoped it wasn't the real thing) to shut up. Though what Evy just said made him and Mickey nervous.

"You dream about dead guys?" Rick asked with a slight disbelief look, resulting a spooked out look from Mickey, an exasperated roll of eyes from Riku along with a groan, a chuckle from Jonathan and a glare from Evy.

"These sacred spells have been curved off. This man must've been condemed not only in this life, but the next." Evy decided to ignore the comment and instead gazed at the curvings on the coffin itself.

Riku grimiced and said, "Tough break."

"I'm starting to think that he really did something terrible to go through this sort of being buried." Mickey thought, shuddering.

"Yeah, well, I'm all tears." Jonathan said sarcastically as he pulled out his key and began unlocking the coffin. "Now lets see who's inside, shall we?" as he and Rick then grunted as they both pulled hard at the coffin door. The next thing that happened, a mummy jumps out and causing everyone to scream in terror and fright, and Mickey nearly fell onto the ground. before they stopped as the mummy just stood there.

"Ooh! I wish they wouldn't jump out like that!" Mickey grumbled while placing a hand to his chest, his heart still pounding rather too quickly.

Riku stared at the mummy in disbelief, as did the others since this wasn't a normal mummy that neither of them had seen before. It was still...red, gooey, slimy and disgustingly fresh. "Is he supposed to look like that?" He asked.

"No, I've never seen a mummy like this before." Evy replied, in disbelief herself.

Mickey blinked in disbelief as well as he said, "Gosh, me neither. Mummies are usually wrapped up and dusty. This fella's more gross..and still...still..."

"Juicy." Riku, Rick and Jonathan muttered in unision, both in disbelief as well.

"Yup." Mickey agreed with a nod since he couldn't come up with a better explaination on how to discribe the skeletion of the dead person before them.

"He must be more than 3,000 years old, and, well, it looks as though he's still...decomposing." Evy agreed.

"Guys." Riku suddenly spoke up as he noticed something else unusual and had bend down to look at strange scratches from the other side of the lid. The others, hearing him, gathered around. "Do these look like...finger nails to you?" he asked.

"Finger nails?" Mickey blinked, shocked.

Evy trailed her fingers onto the markings, and said while whipping around to gaze at the skeletion and said, "Oh my god, you're right. This man was buried alive." before turning back and noticed something else. "And he left a message."

She translated as she read, " _Death...Is only the beginning._ " All five of them turned back to the dead man again, all wondering what he had done to deserve such horrible fate. Though Riku and Mickey both had a feeling that they shouldn't find out.

If only Riku sensed that the rivals were being watched by someone that would possibly be the cause of this world's demise into darkness.

* * *

As soon as the black-haired boy rounded the corner to search for something, the next thing he encountered were the diggers running past him, and then few minutes later, Beni came running while passing him and screaming, "Beware of the curse! Beware!" before disappearing.

Smirking he said to himself, "Curse or not, he's just gonna end up like everyone else." before the boy continued and didn't even jolt when he heard the sound of unusual burst, and when he found the chamber of the legs of Anubis, he instead hid at the corner as he listened.

"It does exist; The Book of the Dead." Allen was saying.

"A book?" Daniels asked, sounding disappointed. "Who cares about a book? Where the treasure?"

"This, gentlemen, this is treasure."

' _Bingo_.' The boy thought, while silently disappearing into the darkness to wait for the moment to strike.

Phase one was a success. Now it was time for Phase two.

* * *

Later that night at camp, Riku, Mickey, Rick, Jonathan and their rivals were seated around the campfire, still wary on last night's sudden attack episode. On the other hand, Riku and Mickey both suddenly felt that there was a reason for Ardeth's warning to leave this place, but they couldn't figure out how or why though.

"Say, O'Connell." said Handerson as he and Burns joined Daniels on their side of the campfire, while shaking his bird-shaped headed canobic jar, "What do you think these babies'll fetch back home?"

"We heard you boys found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy." Burns added as he sat down with his monkey-headed jar, which annoyed the others as he added, "Congratulations."

"You know, if you dry that fella out, you might be able to sell him for firewood." Daniels added, laughing.

While Rick mocked their laughter, while Riku and Mickey both shuddered at the thought. The idea of drying up that mummy and selling the bones for firewood was just too disgusting for words.

"Look what I found!" Evy called up as she sat between Rick and Riku. "Scarab Skeletions."

"Scarab?" Mickey asked, a bit curious.

"Flesh eaters." Evy answered, "I found them inside our friend's coffin, and they can stay alive for years, feasting on the flesh of a corspe. Unfortunately for our friend, he was still alive when they started eating him." as she showed off the dried up skeletions of the said insects in her hands.

Riku was certain he was feeling rather sick in the stomach, and Mickey certainly looked rather green, the latter regretting in asking what the Scarabs actually were, and really, who would blame him? Well, he did ask, so, too late to not know now.

"So, somebody threw these in with our guy and they slowly ate him alive?" Rick asked, in slight disbelief.

"Very slowly." Evy confirmed.

"Well, he wasn't a popular fellow where they planted him." Jonathan thought as he looked pale himself.

Rick then said while trying to lighten the mood, "Well, he probably got a little too frisky with the Pharaoh's daugther." everyone but Riku laughed and Mickey laughed more nervously than in humor.

"Well, according to my readings, our friend suffered the Hom Dai." Evy explained, "The worst of all ancient Egyptain curses...one reserved for only the most evil blashemers. In my research, I've never heard of this curse actually being preformed."

"Is it really that bad?" Riku asked, not liking where this was going.

"Yes, they've never used it because they feared it so." Evy continued, "It's written that, if the victum of the Hom Dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt."

Mickey ended up clinging onto Riku while quivering in fear at the terrible ghost story until he realised how silly this looked. Muttering an apology to his friend while letting go, the king then asked while awkwardly clearing his throat, "What happens after that?"

"No one knows, but they say that it will spread darkness onto the entire world." Evy concluded.

Riku and Mickey both looked alarmed as they glanced at each other in great worry. If the legend was true, then this was a definate danger to this world. If the dead mummy they, Rick, Evy and Jonathan found would really send this world into darkness, then they were risking in sending in Heartless that could find the Keyhole to this world and devour it.

"Then I guess it's best to leave that guy where he is and not wake him up." Riku decided. "If this place is cursed, then this is a bad sign to find him."

"You know, I think those fellas from last night know about this too and maybe that's why they wanted us to go away because they didn't want any to find the fella we found right now." Mickey said in full agreement.

"Yeah, that Egyptologist guy mentioned on a chest that we found about something similiar where we found a boring old black book, and these babies." Handerson pointed out.

"The Book of the Dead?" Evy asked, surprised. "I thought the Book of Amun Ra was supposed to be there."

"Sounds like the book's not normal either." Riku thought with a concerned frown.

"Yeah, are you sure anyone should be playing with that thing?" Rick added, worriedly.

Evy shook her head, "Oh, come on. It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book, right?"

"Um, what happened to the phrase, _"you can't judge a book by it's cover"_?" Mickey pointed out. "Nobody said about every book being normal on the inside."

"He has a point." Jonathan agreed quickly in agreement.

* * *

Too bad the group were unaware that, later that night when most of them went to sleep, the boy in the red and black outfit snuck up to take the book from a sleeping Allen's arms before finding slowly approaching the campsite where the others were sleeping.

However, just as the boy took the key from the sleeping Jonathan's bag, instantly Riku sensed darkness, Rick was quickly awake, Mickey suddenly felt a familiar pressence though he thought it was impossible, and Evy, who had a bit of trouble sleeping awas wide awake, and all four of them jolted up right and saw the new intruder.

"Who are you!?" Riku demanded.

Mickey had a bit of trouble in why the boy in the red and blue outfit was familiar, but when he did, his eyes widened in horror as he gasped, "It can't be!"

The boy laughed, and said, "Oh so you recongise me? Took you long enough." before he leaped up and posted himself onto a stone piller while easily opening the Book of the Dead with the key and then tossed the key to the ground to the group's feet.

"Who's this kid?" Rick asked, dumbfounded.

"Vanitas!" Mickey exclaimed, "I thought you disappeared!" pointing accusingly at the boy now identified as Vanitas.

"I did disappear, but well, I'm not really here right now, but I will be soon...sooner than you think." Vanitas laughed.

Riku, not recongising the name Vanitas, glanced at Mickey, asking, "Do you know him?"

Mickey shifted uncomfortably and replied, "He caused a lotta problems with another evil man eleven years ago. It's a long story."

"Give that book back! It doesn't belong to you." Evy demanded.

"What're gonna do, lady? Lecture me?" Vanitas mocked, before looking into the book, and grinned as he, surprisingly, began to read in Ancident Egyptain, much to the group's shock. Since when did Vanitas speak Ancient Egyptain?

Riku then felt a painful scent and jolt of darkness and he shut his eyes tight, but then suddenly a vision blocked his view. He saw the mummy underground, and could still hear Vanitas' chanting...seconds later the said skeletion jerked instantly to life, and roared, unleashing the most horrifying and imhuman scream ever heard before he returned to reality and Vanitas finished chanting.

"Riku! Are you alright?" Mickey asked worriedly as he noticed the pained look on his friend's face.

Before Riku could answer, suddenly he and everyone else heard an alarmed and horrified scream from a now awakened Allen, "NO! YOU MUST NOT READ FROM THE BOOK!"

"Heh, too late." Vanitas smirked, before closing the book which slid shut and then carelessly tossed it to the floor, the others too shocked to register on what just happened, and were even more shocked when he teleported out into darkness as he waved, "See ya, if you all survive what's yet to come."

"He can...use darkness...!" Riku whispered in disbelief.

Then they all heard something that quickly woke everyone else in camp up, and it was a good thing they did too. At first, Riku and Mickey both thought the darkness was quickly spreading to devour the world. The second worst thing that came instead was a black wall was coming towards them and it turned out to be locusts.

"Run!" Rick yelled, quickly leading Riku, Mickey, Evy and Jonathan towards safety down one tunnel, everyone else all heading into the other tunnel in great fears. Unfortunately, a couple of Heartless appeared and began to devour hearts from the diggers, turning them into darkness.

Allen was on his own, covered in Locusts but surprisingly still alive, as he held the book to his chest, asking in guilty whisper, "What have we done?" and even the Heartless didn't seem to be paying attention to him.

* * *

Axel didn't know what was going on. One minute he was wandering stuck in the desert with the supplies he had, then next thing he knew, a bunch of locusts appeared and he had to fight off Heartless that appeared until he had no choice but to at least try and teleport away, though not to where he hoped he would go.

Instead, he was forced to teleport back into the tunnels of the City of the Dead and panted in relief for a bit of a rest, though the sent of powerful and evil darkness filled the tunnels were much stronger now than ever.

"Okay, can someone please explain to me where those locusts even come from?" Axel asked to no one in paticular.

He then noticed a door up ahead, and furrowed his eyes. But before he could even consider in going in, Axel sensed more darkness behind him and whipped around just in time to see not Heartless, but strange blue jittery things with red eyes.

"For crying out loud." Axel grunted as he summoned his Chakrams, and slashed at two with ease when the blue things leaped to attack him. He then skillfully whacked and slashed at more of the strange monsters that were attempting to attack him, though he was forced to leap out of the way and make a break for it towards the door.

He had no idea what was going on, but Axel was about to find out very soon.

* * *

 **A/N: If you can figure out the twist I was talking about, this was the twist I was mentioning. I'm trying to make it different from both my Sailor Moon version and the original version.**


	5. Chapter 4: Imhotep's arrival

**Author's note: Here comes the main antagonist of this story...*giggles evilly***

 **Please note that I suck at writing battle scenes in different angles without repeating the same attack and such.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Imhotep's arrival.

Now lost within the tunnels while trying to find a way out that wasn't sky-filled with locusts, Rick was slowly taking lead with Riku, Mickey, Evy and Jonathan behind him. Their minds were repeatedly rewinding to how the boy, Vanitas was the name Mickey said, spoke in ancient egyptain and read the book, thus the troubles began unexpectedly. Riku still had no idea who this Vanitas was or why he was causing trouble.

Mickey knew him, even from back years ago. Did that mean Ansem wasn't the only one causing problems to the worlds. Almost eleven years ago the worlds were in danger...and Riku had only been a five year old kid back then!

Just then out of the portals of darkness, more bad knews appeared as familiar different forms of monsters stood before the group, sensing hearts to devour. While Rick, Evy and Jonathan let out shocked cries of disbelief, Riku and Mickey both gasped in shock and horror as they recongized them.

"What are those black giant ant-like things!?" Jonathan screamed out.

"Heartless! Watch out!" Mickey warned quickly, and with no other choice, he summoned his Keyblade and leaped before the Heartless who leaped to try and capture his heart after sensing the Keyblade. But the king was fast and defeated the Heartless before they got the chance.

He single handedly slashed and cleaved the Heartless at best chance he got.

"I'll help, Mickey!" Riku declared as he summoned his Soul-Eater and joined in the fight and down-ward slashed one of the armor-Heartless, side-slashing to the right at another one in a few hits, before going over to another.

The two then did a double slash at the same time at the larger and the bigger Heartless that were always a pain since their weaker spots were their backs. However, before they could finish off the next three Heartless that appeared, the ground suddenly moved violently, causing the group and even the Heartless to almost lost their balance before it stopped.

However a large mound began to rise up and the group, even Mickey and Riku who both retreated back to the others, backed away slowly. They then broke into a run as thousands of scarabs came out, looking for a feast. Surprisingly, the scarabs quickly covered up the heartless in their path while squealing and even devoured them in a matter of seconds.

"Okay, that's disturbing." Riku thought, before yelling at the others, "Run!"

Taking up Riku's advice, the group quickly ran as the Scarabs went for them next and both Riku and Mickey knew that not even their weapons were any use unless they used magic which didn't come across their minds at the moment. Instead, they head squealing and gunshots as Rick threw the torch at them before shooting at the Scarabs before running again.

Finding themselves on a bridge in the cavern, where there was a large indent on the wall which both Mickey and Evy jumped onto to the right while the others all jumped onto a platform to the left. All five of them watched as the Scarabs continued scattering across the bridge while looking for their meal, not realising that their said meals had just outsmarted them. But as Evy moved back a little with Mickey shielding her from the Scarabs in case they reach the two of them, the wall behind them to give way and Mickey was the first to notice.

"Evelyn!" Mickey cried out as he quickly grabbed her hand before she completely fell into the hole, only for her to be too heavy for him and he let out a cry of alarm as he was pulled in with her into the darkness below, while the wall closed shut once they were gone.

The Scarabs in the meantime were gone, and the three guys all sighed in relief, before realising that they were missing two others.

"Mickey?" Riku called out.

"Evy?" Jonathan called out.

"Evelyn?" Rick called out.

Riku was quickly getting worried, before he and the others leaped back onto the bridge and onto the indent where Mickey and Evy were but were obviously not now. All three of them noticed something odd about the colours rocks on it. Riku and Rick both punched against it, but nothing happened.

"Damn it!" Rick cursed. "Trap door! There's gotta be a switch or something around here someplace."

Riku was about to help when all of the sudden they all heard something that sounded like a loud explosion and when all three of them turned to see what was going on, all of the sudden a red-haired man in an Organization coat was thrown backwards by a strange and unusual blue monster with red eyes that took the form of a mummy and he landed onto the bridge hard and grunted in pain, his chakrams being lost from his grip before they disappeared to be summoned the next time around.

"What the hell is that thing?" Rick asked as the blue monster crept closer.

"No idea. I've never seen anything like this before." Riku added, before he once again leaped into action and despite that he knew that the redhead was like the other Organization guys he fought at Castle Oblivion and knew he would regret in saving this guy's life, he couldn't risk the lives of Rick and Jonathan.

Riku leaped high into the air before descending as he lets out a loud battle cry and stabbed the blue monster right into the head with his Soul Eater and pushed the bat-designed blade further into the non-existant skull to make sure it would be defeated. Thankfully after pushing for a few moments the monster finally lets out a moaned defeat before it faded into darkness and he landed on the ground safely as he and the others watched the blue thing vanish into nothing.

While Rick and Jonathan were stunned at how a fifteen year old kid could do something like that, Axel, whom had become exhausted from fighing all of the blue...whatever those things were and slowly stood up, staring at Riku. He knew that he was in trouble.

"You." Riku said slowly as he turned to face Axel. "What are you doing here?"

"Wouldn't it be better to discuss it at another location without company?" Axel asked in a hint of warning.

"Well then, who are you?"

A little relieved and relaxing a bit, Axel replied to that easy question, "Name's Axel. Got it memorized?" he tapped the side of his head everytime he said his catch-phrase.

"Axel?" Rick and Jonathan both asked, glancing at each other in confusion. In their opinion, the redhead was named after the accels in cars. What kind of a name was that for this guy's parents to name him, they wondered.

"And just so you know, no, I have nothing to do with those blue things, and I have no idea what's going on right now either." Axel continued as he sensed that Riku was about to ask him something else. It was random guess, but close enough.

But before Riku could even say anything or even ask if Axel was behind the Heartless appearing, yells then came from the entrace where Axel came from and all four of them looked to see Henderson, Daniels and one digger run as they screamed. Burns and the Egyptologist were missing as well.

"Run, you sons of a bitches! Run!" Henderson screamed at the top of his lungs.

Rick didn't need to ask what was going on or why and simply just said, "Go!" without thinking and even though Axel didn't know what was going on, he could then see the scarabs before being the last to follow the group as Riku quickly rejoined Rick and Jonathan, with the rival diggers close behind.

Axel skid to a stop however as he, Riku and Rick, who both also stopped, turned to see the digger fall onto the bridge and while the redhead didn't have a heart, even he was shocked as the scarabs completely covered and devoured the digger in a matter of seconds, leaving behind a thinly fleshed skeletion.

"Did those things just _eat him!?_ " Axel exclaimed as he then followed the others down the tunnel.

"I thought they were supposed to eat people slowly, not quickly!" Riku cried out, ignoring Axel's question and his mind instead going into worry for Mickey and Evy's safeties. He hoped that the two of them would be alright, despite knowing that Mickey can handle himself.

But he still had a bad feeling.

* * *

Mickey had done his best to soften Evy's landing by having her land on top of him to cosin her fall, but that didn't mean that he had a soft landing, and he couldn't help but moan, "Ouch."

"I'm sorry, Mickey." Evy quickly said as she got off him and helped him up.

"Naw, that's okay." Mickey replied. Both of them stood up as he held his Keyblade in hand while having Evy behind him as he said, now serious, "But we'd better find a way outta here and back to the others."

The room was dark, that was certain, but this was nothing to Mickey compared to what he'd been through in the Realm of Darkness. He wasn't taking any chances, though. Heartless and/or scarabs could jump out of nowhere at any moments notice. He wished he had a flash-light or something, but he'd have to hope for the best.

"Mickey," Evy began as she looked around fearfully, the moonlight being the only source of light in the tunnel she and her only companion were in right now. "Aren't you scared?"

"Well, sorta." Mickey admitted with a slight shrug. Of course he was scared. It wasn't everyday he came across killer flesh eating insects. But he knew, he had to be brave in order to protect people and fight against evil beings, and he continued, "But I learned a long time ago that fear can overtake you and unless you do something about it, you'll end up being casted into darkness. And, well, I've seen things that are just as scary before I even met Riku."

Which was true. In Mickey's life, he fought against evil witches, mad scientests, a madman who was outsmarted(and possibly one of his toughest opponents before the Heartless and Ansem), a giant who later became an friend(though Mickey was accidently gobbled up but managed to avoid in being swallowed up and eaten and escaped) and such.

They then heard a moan from around the corner and found that it was Burns. Wondering how he got separated from his group, Mickey and Evy both approached him, only to jump back in horror when he turned around and all they saw was empty eye sockets.

"Oh my gosh!" Mickey screamed as he and Evy both backed away as the latter covered her mouth in shock. All the two could hear from Burns was a moanful, "My eyes." and if the now terrified king didn't know any better, he could've sworn the man's tongue was missing too.

Suddenly sensing the most evil and powerful villian he ever sensed in his whole life, Mickey quickly whipped around as did Evy, just in time to see the very same Mummy that was dug up emerge from the darkness, now with eyes and a tongue and the Mummy growled as he stepped into the moonlight.

"AAHHHHH!" Mickey and Evy both screamed loudly in terror, scared beyond belief as both stepped back until their backs touched the wall. Mickey had Evy behind him, but he was quivering in fear while holding a tight grip on his Keyblade.

"Okay, I take that back." Mickey admitted about his previous statement he said to Evy, his voice shaking. "This _is_ way more scarier than the things I've encountered before!"

When the Mummy, known as Imhotep, gazed questionly at the two of them, Burns was crawling away, as he managed to gurgle out, "H _e_ to _ok_ _m_ y to _ng_ u _e_..."

As Mickey did his best to position himself to fight, though chances were that fighting against a mummy was just asking for a death sentence, Imhotep gazed at the terrified Evy, and muttered in a monster-like voice, "Anck-Su-Namun?"

' _Huh? Who's Anck...what was it?_ ' Mickey thought to himself, unable to prounonce the word even in his own head, but he held out his Keyblade's tip at the Mummy who took notice and gazed at the mouse before him.

"Go away, ya' evil monster!" Mickey shouted. "I've got a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!" though his bravery was starting to slim but he refused to back down, knowing that Evy depended on him to protect her.

"Mickey!" came Riku's voice as the teenager came barrelling towards them from another entrance, getting the king's attention briefly.

"Riku!" Mickey said, very relieved to see that his friend was safe and alright...for now, anyway.

Riku was about to ask what happened, until his senses acted up again, and he struggled against the pain rising in his chest. He turned to see where it was coming from and even he wasn't immune to the sight of Imhotep before him and jumped, "Whoa!" before holding out his Soul Eater sword, though even he knew that fighting against a Mummy was a different matter compared to Heartless.

"There you guys are!" Rick now came in as he rushed over, saying to them, "Would you quit playing hide and seek?" before he turned to see the mummy himself, and jumped back in fright. "Whoa!"

"Evy?" Jonathan's voice soon came seconds after, causing the Mummy to turn towards the door way, and as the rest of the group came. In fright he yelped as he dropped the torch in horror, Henderson and Daniels jumped in horror and even Axel's eyes widened.

"Whoa! A real-life Mummy!" Axel exclaimed in shock. Suddenly he remembered the warning Ardeth mentioned earlier. If this was the powerful darkness of this world(and Axel was pretty certain that this undead guy was), no wonder those guys warned everyone else to leave this haunted ruins.

Imhotep looked at the four men, before turning his attention back to the other four and unhinges his jaw while giving out a monsterous roar. Evy squeaked, Mickey jumped, Riku flinched, and Rick shuddered, before forgoing his fear and roared back and fired at Imhotep's side on the lower part of the body, causing the Mummy to shriek before he fell to the ground. Mickey flinched in both distaste and very slight sympathy.

Very, _very_ slight sympathy.

Rick then grabbed Evy's hand and pulled her to make a run for it. Riku and Mickey quickly followed, as did Jonathan, Henderson, Daniels and even Axel who was still in disbelief. Then again with other things he'd seen in other worlds like ghosts in Halloween Town, merpeople in Atlantica, Genies and flying Carpets in Agrabah, ect., he figured he shouldn't even be surprised that even Mummies existed.

Despite knowing that he wasn't meant to have feelings without a heart, Axel just hoped that Zombies wouldn't come next to being a reality. One zombie-like comrade back at home was bad enough and even the kid's starting to become less and less zombie like.

The group quickly made it outside, but while the Locusts were gone for now and there weren't any more traces of Heartless or the blue monsters, they came face to face with ten armed Medjai who aimed the guns at them, forcing the group to skid to a stop, and all of them, even Mickey, Riku and Axel to raise their hands in quick surrender. Allen was there as well, the Book of the Dead in his arms as he slumped in fear.

Ardeth pulled down his mask as he glared at the group with cold eyes, even at Axel and said coldly, "I told you to leave or die. You refused. Now you may have killed us all, for you all unleashed a monster we feared for more than 3,000 years."

"Hey, I had nothing to do with this." Axel protested. "Those stupid locusts made me come back here for cover." as he was clearly annoyed for the accusion he was getting.

"Gosh, mister. We're really sorry for finding the Mummy, but we didn't wake him up. It was a fella in a...well, his clothes are hard to describe." Mickey added, "But I've known him to be a real big trouble."

"He read that book this guy's holding and that's when those Locusts came." Riku continued. "He was dressed in red and black and had black hair."

Axel gasped and sharply turned to the two of them and demanded, "Wait a minute! He wouldn't happen to be a kid with yellow eyes, would he!?"

"Y-yep." Mickey hesitatedly replied, wondering how or why Axel confronted the boy who started this in the first place.

"Oh great." Axel groaned, facepalming himself. "First he dragged me to this cursed joint, and now he somehow brought up killer bugs and a Mummy all over the place. Worst part is, mummies have a reputation of being immortal, and I've heard enough stories to know too well about this."

"Immortal?" Riku asked, suspiciously.

While Mickey wasn't a fan of the Organization and he knew that Axel meant trouble, he had to admit that the redhead was right and explained to Riku, "It means living forever and, well, I'm not sure why, but immortals can heal from wounds a lot faster than anybody else."

"Relax, he can't be immortal because I got him." Rick told the group.

Ardeth however was in agreement with both Mickey and Axel and told Rick, "No mortal weapon can kill this monster. He is among the undead." as two more Medjai carried the still moaning Burns towards them and layed the wounded man into the arms of the now shocked Henderson and Daniels.

"What happened to him?" Riku asked, shocked and horrified.

"Don't worry, these fellas didn't hurt him." Mickey quickly assured, while shuddering as he remembered that Burns's eyes and tongue were gone. "It was the mummy that got to him." since he immediately knew that the Medjai had managed to rescue him before Burns could meet his untimely demise.

Axel then gave a nervous smirk and said to Ardeth, "When you said about the next apocylpse about to happen earlier, you weren't kidding. No wonder you guys didn't want anybody to come here, and personally, I wouldn't either."

' _I bet you're saying that just to get to either me or Mickey or even to Sora._ ' Riku thought, but didn't voice it. Axel was one of them-one of those Nobodies.

Ignoring Axel's comment, Ardeth turned to the group and told them, "We saved him before the monster could finish his work. Now, leave all of you before he finishes you all."

"I already told you, I got him." Rick told him.

Ardeth gazed at Rick and even to Riku, telling them firmly, "Know this. This monster is a bringer of death. He'll never eat, he'll never sleep. And he will _never_ stop." before ordering his men to lower their weapons and the Medjai all walked passed the group to enter the tunnels themselves.

"We should go. Right away." Riku decided to take up Ardeth's advise.

Little did he and the others know, that the situation was about to get a lot worse.

* * *

 **A/N: Vanitas will make another appearence in the next chapter. Done my best with this one so far.**


	6. Chapter 5: Serious trouble

**Author's note: Not much to say here, so let's continue on, shall we?**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Serious trouble.

For the first time in his existance, Vanitas couldn't have been more pleased with any plan that was going right for once. Though he decided not to jinx himself and instead had gone off to find Imhotep at the base of Anubis. He did mentally smack himself for tossing away the Book of the Dead and the Key to the heroes, especially to that little annoying king. But he'd worry about that later and instead would get them back.

So when he did find the Mummy who at first attempted to kill him, Vanitas instead calmly told him in Ancient Egyptain that he was the one who woke him up, but he lied about the book and claimed that the people who dug him up stole it from him and plans on getting it back, if Imhotep agreed to make use of him.

" _ **So you wish for me to take over this world?**_ " Imhotep questioned in ancient egyptain, skeptical. While he was grateful for this 'boy' to have woken him up after 3,000 years of the undead, there was something very unusual he couldn't make out.

Vanitas smirked as he replied, also in ancient egyptain, " _ **The people of today do not know that their true purpose is to just be slaves for you. The guys who took the book away from me are like those Medjai losers.**_ "

Remembering the young woman who he believed was Anck-Su-Namun, his deceased lover, Imhotep started to consider in believing the boy and admitted, " _ **They have Anck-su-namun's body. I want that book and the canobic to bring her back!**_ "

" _ **Luckly for you, I think I have a fair idea where they are.**_ " Vanitas replied, as his eyes gazed from behind the Mummy and his smirk grew as he added, " _ **He could be useful if you don't kill him.**_ "

Wondering what the boy was talking about, Imhotep turned around to see Beni who had just arrived with torch in hand and when the whimp turned around, he was face to face with Imhotep. Beni's scream was so high that he sounded like a girl as he dropped the torch and shivered in fear. The scream was so perfect that Vanitas chuckled, amused.

' _He's such a girl._ ' Vanitas thought to himself.

Imhotep thought about it for a moment about Beni who just continued to shake in fear, before admitting to Vanitas, " _ **Yes. He may indeed be a use. And the rewards...will be great.**_ " as he held out his hand and revealed gold and jewels to Beni.

"My prince." Beni whispered as his eyes widened at the sight of the treasure.

Imhotep then held up the broken canobic jar and demanded, " _ **Where are the other sacred jars!?**_ "

Thus the three of them ventured up the surface, just moments after Riku, Mickey, Axel and the others left the City of the Dead behind, though Riku and Mickey both knew that they had to do something in order to try and think of a way to prevent this world from falling into darkness.

* * *

The moment the group reached the town of Cairo, Riku and Mickey both separated from Rick and the others, and had rented out a room and had dragged Axel with them since they knew they couldn't take any chances, and the redhead didn't even put up a fight. Though he did complain a little when they had him cornered against the wall.

"Ow..." Axel groaned as he rubbed his sore wrist that Riku, a fifteen year old kid, had even managed to told an uncomfortable tight grip on not that long ago. "Geez, was that really necessary?"

"What do you know about the situation?" Riku asked, ignoring Axel's complaint.

Rolling his eyes, the redhead sighed and said, "Hey, I have nothing to do with this, if that's what you're asking. Really, it was that kid in that stupid outfit of his that dragged me here in the first place, and I still have no idea what that's the case."

"Why did he bring you here, though?" Mickey asked.

"Look, for the millionth time, he just...dragged me here." Axel grunted, while trying to control his anger that was threatening to set something, anything, on fire. He sighed and added, "Worse part is, that ain't any normal kid since he somehow managed to prevent anyone from leaving this world even through a corridor of darkness."

"I don't think I can believe that." Riku said, skeptically.

"Want me to prove it?" Axel challenged. When the two travellers just gave him suspicious looks, he smirked a little and held out a hand. Riku and Mickey both made to summon their weapons, and like fifty times before, Axel came so close in summoning a corridor, only for unusual electricity to zap him in the arm and he was again forced to stop and hissed sharply as he cradled his arm and the small mist of darkness disappeared.

When he noticed the slightly shocked expressions on Riku and Mickey, Axel nodded and said, "See? He even managed to prevent me from getting outta here without hurtin' myself."

Mickey instantly became concerned. If Vanitas could do this, then that meant serious trouble, especially when he woke the Mummy up. Not only that, he couldn't risk in revealing how he knew about the dangerous bad guy with Axel around. Mickey had to tell Riku in privite, though he wasn't comfortable in telling his friend this either. Riku already went through enough trouble as it was and Mickey was afraid of losing him to the darkness again.

"What is he...?" Riku asked, in half-whisper. Vanitas was almost as bad as Ansem.

" _Do you really think you want to know, Riku?_ " A familiar dark voice taunted in his head. Riku shut his eyes as he felt the familiar pain once again. He wasn't certain if Ansem was still in his heart or that he was imagining things. Either way, the teen told the dark voice to keep quiet.

"Whatever. I'm thirsty." Axel said, going over to the sink in the kitchen area and filled an empty glass as he turned on the taps, when all of the sudden something hit the three of them in the head pretty hard, like some invisible electric jolt, and for a quick glimpse of a second, the image of the decayed Mummy appeared in their vision before Riku, Mickey and even Axel returned to reality, and the were quickly alarmed. They also sensed...the powerful darkness...very close by.

Mickey was the first to realise what it was and he muttered in shock, "Uh oh..."

Axel had just poured the water in the glass when he felt the same jolt, and when he looked down and about to ask what was going on, his eyes widened as the water in the glass wasn't clear at all. "What the...?" he muttered.

"Mickey, you can sense that darkness too?" Riku asked, worriedly.

"Uh-huh." Mickey nodded.

"I don't know if it's connected or this world's totally whacko, but," Axel began as he returned to the group and said, "But I think the pipes around here are either filled with blood or this world has vampires as well as mummies." and he held up the glass that held liquid that was red and a bit too thick to be water.

Pure horror was placed on Riku and Mickey's faces as the two glanced at each other, realization dawning to them very quickly.

"We gotta warn everybody!" Mickey quickly said.

"Right!" Riku agreed, before turning to Axel and said, "Since we're stuck here, you have to come with us!"

Despite not wanting to work with two of the few enemies of the Organization, Axel knew he had very little choice and shrugged, "Whatever. I certainly don't wanna end up turning into a mummy anyway."

Though when the trio raced out of the room, Axel grumbled to himself, "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in another room, Burns was wearing a blue robe, with bandages around where his eyes used to be, sitting in a chair, opposite to a figure wearing black cloak and a mask, on the table next to them were two cups of tea. Standing in the middle of them were both Vanitas and Beni, as the former held his cruel smirk on his expression. In reality, it was Imhotep in the cloak and mask.

"I'm so...pleased, to meet you." Burns said, attempting to shake the visitor's hand, but Beni grabs the man's hand and pushes it away from Imhotep.

"His royal highness doesn't like to be touched by others." Vanitas explained. "He can be wary towards strangers, unfortunately."

"Please forgive me." Burns muttered. He was really falling for it, and what will happen to him next will most likely be his very last moments to be alive.

"Mr. Burns. Prince Imhotep thanks you for your hospitality..." Beni began to say to the eyeless man. "And for your eyes...and for your tongue..." the latter's expression turned from confusion into slow realized fear, as he realised who this was.

"But, I'm afraid more is needed." Beni stood to move away, saying to the terrified man, "The prince must finish the job, to consummate the curse, which you and your friends have brought yourselves upon."

Burn's pleads were brought upon to deaf ears as he gave out a final scream while Imhotep removed the mask and held an ugly and nasty skinless evil grin to finish his job that he began at the City of the Dead.

* * *

 _Back to Riku and the others..._

When the trio reached the courtyard in hopes to find the others, to add to the bad luck, Heartless suddenly appeared in front of them and blocked their path, causing them to skid to a stop and quickly summoned their weapons, knowing that they had to get rid of the Heartless first.

"No time for you!" Riku shouted as he slashed thinly at the two heartless at attempted to get to him, but were immediately destroyed, before he moved to use a dark-fire with one hand and blasted it onto another one with the same result.

Mickey swished and slashed at three Heartless that attempted to attack him, and were quickly defeated in each single hits he gave, before casting a gravita spell that had two more Heartless stuck in mid-air. He then leaped up and slashed them in a single hit before landing safely on the ground and the spell eased off, but the heartless were already gone.

Axel thrusted his Chakrams outward in a fashion of tossing them expertly, allowing the weapons to do the work as his favorites sliced each heartless in half and disappearing into darkness before the weapons returned to him and he caught them sharply and quickly with eased practice.

"Time's up!" Riku told the Heartless as he and Mickey joined hands and preformed their special team-work attack and twirled around and around and around with mixture powers of light and a bit of darkness which eliminated the heartless that attempted to get to them only to get hit painfully and then disappear back into darkness. Once the attack was finished, the two returned to fighting the heartless solo.

"C'mere, I'll make it stop!" Axel taunted the Heartless as he thrusted against a slightly larger Heartless that was the same height as him and he could've sworn that, like the blue jittery monsters back at the City of the Dead, this Heartless took the form of a mummy. Well, no point on wondering about that now, because the Heartless met a bitter end with his Chakrams slicing it in half.

Eventually the heartless blocking their path were gone for now, but the crisis was far from over. Not a moment too soon when thunder roared and lightning flashed that got the trio's attention. When they looked up, their eyes widened in shock and horror(well, if you count Axel's since he doesn't have a heart), dark clouds formed and instead of rain, fireballs rained down and began to burn or destroy everything on the ground, including buildings.

When Riku and Mickey both glanced at Axel, the redhead held his hands up in surrender and quickly said, "I have nothing to do with this!" while the group quickly went to shelter and for a split second thought they heard a monsterous roar that sounded horribly familiar.

The moment Riku and the others turned to where the roar came from, Beni suddenly came running past them and while the trio wondered where this guy came from since the last time Riku and Mickey saw him was at the City of the Dead and they and even Rick and the others thought he was dead, they and Axel then noticed Rick himself and Evy running up the stairs leading into the guest rooms of the hotel everyone was staying at.

"Gosh, I sure hope they're not going where I think the roar came from." Mickey thought, worriedly. His stomach was twisting very uncomfortably and he had a terrible feeling his worst fears were just up stairs.

He, Riku and even Axel all immediately went up the stairs themselves into the room where the two of them, Rick and Evy knew was were Burns was staying in recovery before leaving for home tomorrow.

Or he would've been if Burns was still alive. Problem is, when Riku, Mickey and Axel finally joined Rick and a horrified Evy in the room, he was dead. Riku gasped in horror, Mickey nearly fainted or threw up, or possibly both, and Axel's eyes widened in disbelief. There sat the remains of Burns, decayed, boned, with only his hair intact and still wearing the robe.

"Enjoying the view?" A familiar voice mocked.

When the group looked up, they found Vanitas leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest, wearing a cruel smirk on his expression as though he was enjoying their expressions, and he chuckled a little when Riku, Mickey and Axel glared at him, while Evy and Rick were slightly dumbfounded.

"Vanitas!" Mickey yelled, angrily after he shook off both the dizzy spells and the sickness.

"You!" Axel hissed, just as angry. He wasn't about to let this Riku-wanna-be kid get away this time.

"You're the cause for this whole mess, in waking up a dead mummy!" Riku told Vanitas accusingly.

Vanitas rolled his eyes and sarcastically asked, "Do I look as though I care? Besides, I'm not the one who dried up that blind friend of yours. My new boss did." he grinned as he pointed a thumb at something that the group had hoped wouldn't see again so soon.

Riku and the others looked to where Vanitas was pointing and they felt sick in the stomach when they saw their nightmare standing near the fireplace, rejuvenating. He turned to them as more skin covered his bones and then roared at them when he noticed that he and Vanitas had company.

"We are in serious trouble." Rick muttered scaredly as he aimed his guns at the un-decaying mummy, before firing as Imhotep approached him, and this time the bullets just went through while damaging everything else behind the mummy.

"Vanitas!" Riku screamed as he, Mickey and Axel all quickly went to fight their other enemy.

But Vanitas wasn't concerned. He summoned a weapon of his own, to which Riku and Axel were both shocked to see that it was a red and black geared-like Keyblade and when the black-haired boy thrusted out his arm with his weapon, a gust of wind came along with it, and despite their best efforts to keep themselves from being blown away, the trio were blasted by the gust and crashed into Jonathan, Daniels and Henderson just as they came into the ground, and all six of them ended up in a pile onto each other on the ground.

Rick didn't have much luck as Imhotep shoved him as the former screamed and landed on top of Jonathan and Axel. The group were now weakened slightly by both attacks of both Vanitas and Imhotep.

"That all you guys got?" Vanitas shook his head, disappointed. "Man, you're all pathetic."

Imhotep in the meantime, noticed Evy who backed up in fear, as the former then attempted to lean forward and as everyone else looked up, Axel and even Vanitas(surprisingly) all cringed in disgust, kiss her. Fortunately, he was interrupted when the sound of a "Mureerow." came and when Imhotep turned to look, a beautiful white cat was on the piano keys, stepping on them as the cat walked.

To Vanitas's confusion, Imhotep was suddenly horrified and then the latter turned into a cloud of sand and flew away out of the balcony while closing the door behind him.

"Hey, where you going!?" Vanitas shouted, and for the first time in his existance, he was dumbfounded. Since when was Imhotep afraid of cats? Grumbling, he turned to glare at the similiarly dumbfounded heroes and told them coldly, "Hmph, you got lucky this time. But next time, you'd better brace yourselves for a bitter end." and then vanished into the corridor of darkness.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, until Axel, dumbfounded himself, asked as he blinked blankly, "Okay...What just happened?"

"We are in _very_ serious trouble." Rick muttered as he gazed to where Imhotep had gone, with a freaked out expression on his face.

"Is everyone alright?" Riku asked around, and was relieved that they were fine...though Henderson and Daniels were distraughted by the loss of Burns, and Jonathan did look rather green in the face at Burns' corpse.

As Mickey got up and approached the white cat, giving it a friendly cat in which, seeing how this new stranger was very nice, rubbed against the king who thought, "Gee, I guess the mummy doesn't like cats."

"But he does seem to like Evy, though." Riku thought with a frown.

Axel in the meantime, gazed at Mickey who didn't notice him staring and frowed his brows. So the king knew the kid with the black-spiky hair, huh? Even knew his name. The redhead suddenly had a suspicious feeling that Mickey knew more about the Riku-Wanna-Be more than just by name.

The question was, how was Axel going to ask Mickey about this? What was Vanitas's motivation?

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry that it's a bit shorter again, but as I promised in the last chapter, Vanitas makes an appearence in more ways than one in this chapter. Look out for the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 6: Darkness of Imhotep

**Author's note: Again, not much to say.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Darkness of Imhotep.

The next day, while still lingering over yesterday's events and the motivations of both Imhotep and Vanitas, Evy had suggested that the group would seek out a meeting to demand for answers from her employer, Terrance who is the head of the Cairo Museum which also acted as a library. Without any other leads in the situation and noticing that Allen had been absent since their arrival in Cairo, most likely with the Book of the Dead, Riku and the others agreed to head over to the Museum at once.

Axel still didn't get the chance in asking for answers from Mickey, but he decided that, despite not having a heart and knowing that he needed one to have emotions, that even he is still recovering from yesterday's craziness.

Instead, he opted to speak up in the one thing he and everyone else did notice about the undead bad guy. "You know, that walking, ugly corpse sure seems to have a thing for you, ma'am." he said.

The others agreed.

"Gosh, he even tried to get to her when Evy and I first saw him." Mickey remembered, while trying to rid the memory of the intensed fear that made him realise that mummies were about as scary as ghosts.

"But," Riku began in concern, "What does he want with Evelyn?"

"Yeah, what's that about?" Rick demanded as well.

Evy shook her head, and answered, "I don't know, but there's only one man I know who can give us any answers." as she led them into one of the ancient egyptain exhibits, hoping to find her boss.

Turns out he wasn't the only one they would find.

With her boss, an old man in a black robe and a red fez, was a familiar younger man they didn't think they'd see again so soon, let alone alive. The group's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"You!?" Evy cried out, shocked, her eyes locked onto Ardeth Bay, who seemed to have been having a conversation with Terrance. Riku, Mickey, Rick and the others all tensed at the sight of Ardeth.

"Miss Carnahan." Terrance greeted Evy, though his tone sounded more like mocking. "Gentlemen."

"What is he doing here?" Evy demanded, as she and her group glared at the Medjai.

The two men glanced at each other, before turning back to the group and Terrance asked in return, as though he was facing enemies than an employee, her brother and friends, "Do you really want to know?"

The group relaxed just a little, Rick then replied, "After what I saw, I'm willing to go on a little faith here."

"Do you two know each other?" Riku asked to Terrance and Ardeth.

* * *

A short time later, the group settled a privite seating around the exhibits of one of the late rulers Seti the First, as Terrance revealed that he too is a Medjai, working as a double agent for the Museum as a secondary job behind everyone's backs, even his employees.

"We are part of an ancient secret society. For over 3,000 years, we have guarded the city of the dead." Terrance said as he sat down in one of the chairs, continuing, "We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our power to stop High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world."

"Now because of you, we have failed." Ardeth concluded, glaring at all of them.

"Hey, I had nothing to do with it." Axel pointed out, glaring at Ardeth in return. How many times did everyone had to point fingers at him and assume that he's guilty for this mess. "Blame that spiky-haired kid who brought me here in the first place."

"And he's the one who read that book too." Riku added, "But even so, none of us really knew that the legend of the curse was true." he admitted.

Mickey shook his head and asked Terrance, "But even so, do you think it's actually better to hurt innocent people instead of just warning them about the dangers?" incredulously and slight disgust.

"To stop this monster? Let me think." Terrance pretended to think for a second, before answering in unison with Ardeth coldly, "Yes!"

"You know, you could've always just built a ten-foot wall with a sign that says, _"Keep Out"_ or something. Would've made things a lot easier and those signs usually do the trick." Axel pointed out as he sat slouched in one of the chairs, as though stating the obvious. "Or, I don't know, never mentioned about that place to the public and kept it secret?"

' _Like you care._ ' Riku thought bitterly, but kept those thoughts to himself. On the other hand, a ten foot wall with a keep out sign or never mention hints and riddles about the city itself to the public really would've made things a bit easier. Or both for that matter.

While Rick was in agreement with Axel's suggestion, he instead asked with a skeptical look, "Question. Why doesn't he like cats?" remembering how Imhotep ran off screaming at the sight of a cat-almost literally.

"Yeah, that poor little fella would've been in more danger than the mummy himself." Mickey added. "Unless he was small, which I can understand, but the mummy has dangerous powers, while the kitty...well...she would've just only used her claws or hissed or run off in terror."

"Perhaps normal cats, but Imhotep doesn't know that yet." Terrance explained, "You see, cats are guardians to the gateways of the Underworld. He will fear them until he is fully regenerated."

"And then he'll fear nothing." Ardeth concluded.

' _Don't remember Hades mention anything like that._ ' Riku thought to himself, remembering the uncomfortable memories of when Maleficent used him and how he was stuck with several villians from other worlds who all had been defeated. Then again, Riku never went to the Underworld and didn't plan to at all. He figured that it was almost just as bad as the Realm of Darkness.

Instead, he said aloud, "So as long as he doesn't know about normal cats not doing much harm, and as long he's still...well, you know, might use the cat to scare him off a bit the next time he comes back."

"Unless we bring in a giant cat who could most likely eat him before he gets the chance to recover." Axel joked with a smirk.

Mickey, Evy, Jonathan, Rick, Riku, Henderson, Daniels, even both Terrance and Ardeth stared at him with mouth-gapping looks of disbelief at such a joke. While the joke itself is very unlikely, it was still...well, rather disturbing despite that the idea itself wasn't half-bad. But still. A giant cat eating an undead walking corpse.

Ew.

Deciding to forget the joke, Daniels began, "Well, you know how he gets himself fully regenerated?"

"By killin' everyone who opened that chest." Henderson grumbled.

"And suckin' them dry, that's how!"

Well that certainly explained what happened to poor Burns, Mickey realised. He was one of those who opened the chest which was the first key to unleash the curse of Imhotep. Vanitas must've known this. The king now wished he'd known sooner about this situation that was no doubt causing this world to fall into darkness. He visibly shuddered as he closed his eyes, trying to block out the memories of the empty eye-sockets of the late adventurer.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Evy spoke up again, "When Mickey and I first saw him alive in Hamunapta, he called me...Anck-Su-Namun."

The name of Anck-Su-Namun had Ardeth and Terrance pause, their expression turning into a mixture of surprise and realization, which allowed Evy to continue, "And just yesterday at Burn's quarters he...tried to kiss me."

"Please don't remind me of that." Riku groaned, placing his hand onto his face as he still tried to rid the images of that scene that was still stuck in his head.

Axel quirked an eyebrow and asked, "Who is An-whatever it was?" unable to speak the unusual name properly. Whoever this Anck-Su-Namun was, one) it was very obviously a woman, and two) if Imhotep called Evelyn that name, then she must resemble to someone the bad guy knew in the past.

Terrance, realising what this means, said, "Anck-Su-Namun was to be Seti's wife. But she was the cause of that he was cursed." he looked at Ardeth and added, "Apparently, even after 3,000 years..."

Ardeth nodded in agreement, "He is still in love with her."

"Are you saying that she and the mummy were in love?" Mickey asked, once again shocked. Ardeth and Terrance both nodded to confirm his suspicions.

"Tough romance." Axel shook his head. Why did love had to be so complicated? When he meant complicated, he meant that he'd vaguely seen a human girl having a relationship with a beast and that, he had already decided, was weird and complicated.

Riku was thinking along the same lines, and the hidden guilt for confronting the Beast in Hollow Bastion hanged deeply in his heart. He himself kidnapped the princesses, away from their lovers, just for Maleficent and all because of lies just to reuight with Kairi, had been lied that Sora gave him and Kairi up, while in reality, Sora kept on looking for him and Kairi.

"Well, yes, that's very romantic, but what has that got to do with me?" Evy questioned.

Mickey thought about it, then shrugged and suggested, "Maybe he thought you kinda looked like Anck-Su-Namun and mistaked you for her."

"After 3,000 years?" Axel asked, skeptically. "His girlfriend's obviously dead by now."

Ardeth seemed to agree, because he said to Terrance, "Despite this, he could once again try to raise her back from the dead."

"Again?" Mickey, Rick, Axel and Riku all asked. Did that mean Imhotep tried to revive his lover before?

"Anck-Su-Namun and Imhotep both killed the Pharaoh Seti the First, before Anck-Su-Namun killed herself." Ardeth explained as he turned to face the four of them.

"And lemme guess," Axel sighed, suddenly thinking where things started to go bad, "The bad guy decided to bring her back but didn't get the chance, right?"

"Wait a minute." Mickey thought. "The book of the dead can being dead people back to life, and he tried to use that book to bring back the girl he really loved, but then that means..."

"He was cursed to suffer the curse." Riku concluded, also coming to the same conclusion.

Axel shook his head, grumbling, "This is something out of a tragic play."

"Yes," Terrance agreed, and gazed his eyes at Evy and concluded, "And it appears Imhotep has chosen his sacrifice." which Ardeth also gazed at the now speechless woman. Mickey and Riku both glanced at each other in shock. Imhotep was planning on sacrificing Evy to bring back Anck-Su-Namun?

"Why would he do that?" Riku asked.

"Simple." Axel realised, "Since his girlfriend's body is a decayed mummy now, he needs a human girl's body to place his said girlfriend's soul into, by killing the body's original soul."

"And he nees the book the of the dead to do that." Riku realised, despite that he wanted to smack himself for agreeing with a member of the Organization. "That'll take him a while to patch things up with himself."

Terrance stood up as he said, "But it may give us enough time to kill him."

"We'll need all the help we can get." Ardeth stated, staring up at the glass ceiling. "His powers are growing." causing everyone else to look up as somehow the moon was blocking out the sun's light, forming an unusual eclipse.

Axel blinked, "First blood through the plumming and now this?"

"They're were the two plauges; rivers and waters in Egypt ran red...and were as blood." Jonathan quoted, before quoting again about the eclipse, "And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the lands of Egypt."

' _Darkness...he's spreading his darkness to this world quickly._ ' Riku realised in horror.

Time was running out.

* * *

In an abandoned empty building in the streets of Cairo, Vanitas, Imhotep who once again rore the black cloak and Beni discussed the next step of the goal to restore Imhotep to his human form and find the rest of the canobic jars as well as the Book of the Dead to revive Imhotep's lover, Anck-Su-Namun.

" _ **So you're saying that all cats are guardians to the gateway of the Underworld?**_ " Vanitas asked in ancient egyptain after Imhotep explained why he ran away from the white cat in Burn's room earlier. At the undead mummy's confirmed nod, the raven-haired boy rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance and slight disbelief. Didn't this guy realise that mortal cats were less capable to do as what immortal cats could do?

Even King Mickey could tell the difference and he was a mouse for crying out loud! Talk about ridiculous!

" _ **Why do you look so annoyed with this? They can send me back to the Underworld before I get the chance to restore my original form!**_ " Imhotep angrily pointed out.

Vanitas wasn't fazed by the angry outburst, and, deciding that explaining that detail about mortal cats being in more of a risk than anything else would be a complete was of time, and shrugged, " _ **Whatever. At least you can easily get away from them with your sand-teleport spells. In the meantime, it's that book and the rest of the canobic jars and three other victums we'll be looking for, right?**_ "

Calming down a little on getting back onto the important parts of their goal, Imhotep nodded, and added, " _ **And bring me Anck-Su-Namun's resurrected body.**_ "

Nodding in agreement, Vanitas then turned to Beni who just stood there, only having a vague clue on what the two of them were talking about, and the former told him in english this time, "This is how it's gonna work. You go find that egyptologist guy and get the black book where his office is. His royal highness and I are gonna split up to search the streets for whoever else has the jars and opened the chest."

"I can find his office easily. He could be there too and he hugs that book like a teddy bear." Beni replied, as he walked out the empty building to begin his search. All he had to do was ask around and then scavage through the office to find what they're looking for.

Once Beni was out of earsdrop, Vanitas and Imhotep glanced at each other again and both smirked. In reality, they were counting on Beni to have an encounter with the ones in this situation to be distracted while they find the remaining ones under the curse.

" _ **Time for round 2.**_ " Said Vanitas.

While Imhotep did not yet know about the modern world's words, he still nodded in agreement.

* * *

 _Back with Riku and the others..._

After returning to Evy's room, the group discussed about what to do next in order to prevent Imhotep from restoring his human form and who to save whoever opened the stupid chest.

"Alright, who opened that chest?" Mickey questioned to Henderson and Daniels, while everyone else either seated or stood in the room.

"Well, there's me and Daniels here." Henderson answered, before quickly remembering, "Oh, and Burns."

"And that Egyptologist feller." Daniels added.

Rick, who had been staring out of the window while listening to the conversation, turned to look at the rivals and asked, "What about my buddy Beni?"

"Nah, he scrammed outta there before we opened it." Daniels shook his head.

Henderson nodded in agreement, "Yeah, he was the smart one."

"Then there's that guy Vanitas to worry about too." Riku spoke up. "I don't know what he wants, but he's not going to get away with using the book to wake up the mummy."

' _Or keeping me trapped in this world._ ' Axel added in his mind. He had a bone to pick at that black-spiky haired kid. Which also confused him on why no one else in the Organization were alerted by his absence or the pressence of Vanitas. Maybe everyone thought Axel himself had perished too.

Nah, only the Dusks would give out that misunderstanding. Those weaker Nobodies never get things right, and they seemed to love playing jokes on Roxas.

"If we find the Egyptologist, we can bring back to safety of the fort." Evy told the group.

"Sounds like a plan." Riku agreed.

"Right." Rick nodded in agreement, before firmly ordering, "She stays here, the rest of you, come with me." and while Riku and Mickey both nodded and made to move to follow Rick, Axel groaned, and everyone else had a problem. Jonathan, Henderson and Daniels didn't want to leave and Evy didn't want to stay behind.

"Who put you in charge!?" Evy protested angrily, "You can't leave me behind like some old carpet bag!"

"Ugh, I've had it." Axel groaned as he stood from his leaning position and went over to Evy and easily lifted her over his shoulder, carrying her into her bedroom despire her protests, and Axel caught the slight smirk on Rick's face.

"Axel! What do you think you're doing!?" Evy yelled, before crying out to her brother.

"Uh, sorry." Jonathan said, a bit scaredly. "But he's taller and scarier."

Riku and Mickey both glanced at Rick who shrugged, as Axel plonked Evy onto the bed and made it out of the room just as she got up and followed him, but the time she did he closed the doors behind him and locked it shut and locked her inside, while Evy continued to yell and banged onto the door, furiously demanding to be let out.

Seeing the others' expressions, Axel shrugged and said, "She was giving me a headache already."

Deciding not to question it, Rick then turned to Daniels and Henderson, telling them while handing the former rival the keys after Axel give it to him, "That door doesn't open. She doesn't come out, and no one goes in. Right?"

"Right." Daniels and Henderson both nodded.

Sastified, Rick told Riku, Mickey, Axel and Jonathan, "Let's go, guys." and while the other three nodded and followed(though Axel was still grumbling), Jonathan just stayed in his seat.

"Oh, I think I'll stay here." said Jonathan.

"Jonathan!" Riku and Mickey both said.

A bit freaked out, Jonathan quickly stood up and told the other two, "Uh, we're uh, we're gonna go save the Egyptologist." and followed the other four out of the room to begin their search for Allen and the Book of the Dead before Imhotep and Vanitas could.

* * *

As the five of them just exited the hotel and onto the streets, to their frustration three bulky Heartless appear in front of them. While Jonathan jumped in fright and nearly hid behind Rick, the latter quickly drew out his guns, Mickey summoned his Keyblade, Riku summoned his Soul Eater and Axel summoned his Chakrams ready to eliminate the Heartless as quickly as possible.

To their surprise, however, an unfamiliar woman suddenly jumped from the side and gave out a single punch and two kicks at all of the three Heartless who all just vanished instantly. When she was done, she flicked her fringe of her long black hair out of her eyes, and turned to the stunned group who all held shocked and incredulous expressions on their faces.

This woman, aside of her long black hair down to the back of her knees, which was tied up to a very low and loose ponytail, had chocolate red-brown eyes, pale-ish skin, a white tank top with a shoulder belted black shots, red and black fingerless boxing gloves, and black boots.

The boys were speechless and dumbfounded. They'd never seen a woman fight the heartless with just her, obviously, martial arts skills before.

"Uh...wow." Riku muttered.

"Are you guys surprised?" The woman asked. She was no older than 21 years old.

"Well, yeah." Axel answered, awkwardly. "That...was absolutely amazing."

"How'd you do that?" Rick asked as he put his guns away, while Mickey and the others de-summoned their weapons, and Jonathan blinked.

The woman shrugged, "I trained." before asking, "Anyway, I'm looking for somebody. Have any of you seen a guy with spiky hair?"

The group blinked, before looking at Axel who tugged one of his hair spikes slightly. The only other spiky haired guys he knew so far were Sora, Roxas and Vanitas.

Giggling, the woman explained again, "Spikier and blonde, and about a year older than me."

"Nope. Sorry, ma'am." Mickey shrugged apologetically, while the others shook their heads as well. "But we were gonna look for somebody else too, and, well..."

"Let's just say there's a real-life mummy on the loose." Axel continued for the king. "Literally."

The woman blinked in confusion, before glancing a skeptical but questioning look at the others who nodded to confirm that Axel was telling the truth. Sighing, she placed her hands on her hips and grumbled, "Why doesn't that suprise me? After everything I've seen so far, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that mummies are real too."

"Well, at least you're smart to believe in curses." Rick sighed, only for Riku, Mickey, and Axel to cast him annoyed and warning looks, which caused him to shrug cluelessly, "What? What'd I say?"

While she did look a bit annoyed, the woman then thought about something and then spoke up, "Maybe I can help you find this person while I'm here." much to their surprise.

"What? Um, are you...sure about that?" Riku asked, awkwardly.

"Well, we can't just let her go out in the dark all by herself and it is getting late." Mickey quickly agreed once he thought about it for a moment. "Besides, the mummy could hurt her and he can't go away until we find a way to stop him."

"He has a point." Jonathan agreed.

"I have no objections." Axel shrugged. Even he knew better than to underestimate women, having been stuck with a grouchy one named Larxene before Sora, Donald and Goofy defeated her at Castle Oblivion.

Riku and Rick both glanced at each other, before giving up and sighed, and turned back to the woman and nodded.

They just hoped this woman wouldn't get in their way or cause any problems. One woman to worry about was bad enough.

* * *

 **A/N: Recongise this female character? *winks* It just came to me and I thought, what the heck? Might was well, I thought to myself.**


	8. Chapter 7: The Horror Continuing

**Author's note: Again, not much to say.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Horror Continuing.

In the middle of the night, Allen looked haunted as he scurried through the streets of Cairo, the Book of the Dead clutched in one arm, and his canobic jar in his other hand, and was terrified beyond belief. He hoped to escape his fate and also to find a way to stop Imhotep and break the curse. He looked around cautionly, becoming more and more terrified by the second.

Just as he entered the Bazaar, however, his attempts to escape fate as been denied as the blue jittery things along with Heartless appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path, threatening ot devour his entire being. As he attempted to turn back, his was quickly surrounded, trapped in the middle by the monsters.

"You're seriously way too easy to find." A sinister voice said behind him. Whipping around, Allen saw that it was Vanitas who grinned evilly, his golden eyes glowing in the darkness of the night, and he held up his Keyblade at the terrified man. "Not only that, I knew the book would be found easier than that stupid weasel of a servant."

"W-what do you want with me?" Allen stuttered in trembling fear.

"Not me." Vanitas smirked. "My boss. Hope you enjoy your trip to the Underworld, because that's where you're going."

Suddenly feeling pressence behind him, Allen turned around to see...a cloaked Imhotep eying him with a grin on his still recovering yet still decaying face. He instantly knew who it was and quickly realised in horror that here was where he would indeed meet his own doom.

Allen gave out a high-pitched and terrified girlish scream.

* * *

Meanwhile, Beni had found Allen's office, but couldn't find Allen himself. He couldn't even find the Book of the Dead and made a mess in the entire room by roughly shoving away everything, and pulling out drawers and shaking them until they're empty, but still came up empty handed.

"Well, well, well." Beni stopped what he was doing when he heard a voice behind him. He whipped around and found that Riku, Mickey, Axel, Rick, Jonathan and the woman they met who introduced herself as Tifa, in the doorway as they had just arrived. It was Axel that spoke as he continue, "Doing a little spring cleaning, are we?"

Realising he's in trouble, Beni quickly made a run for it to escape from the others. But Tifa, seeing this guy trouble, quickly took a chair before Rick could and she tossed the chair at the running man's legs spot on and causing him to cry out in pan as he fell to the ground and nearly twisted his ankle.

"Nice shot." Jonathan winced, while Rick went over to handle business with Beni, and Tifa clapped her hands as though she was dusting them off.

"Man, where'd you learn your fighting skills, Teef?" Axel asked, smirking. He had to admit, he was thoroughly impressed despite not having a heart to even be impressed.

"Years of Practice." Tifa answered.

Riku and Mickey in the meantime went over to Rick as he questioned Beni while shoving him into the table and such in slight anger. "You came back from the desert with a new friend, didn't you, Beni?"

"What friend? You're my only friend." Beni said, but this was lie which Rick saw through and shoved him again.

"What the hell are you doing with this creep, huh, Beni? What's in it for you?" Rick demanded.

"It is better to be the right hand of the devil than in his path. As long as I serve him, I am immune." only to be slammed against boxes in Rick's irritation.

"Immune from what?" Rick demanded.

Riku suddenly realised what Beni was talking about as horrible memories of being used by both Maleficent and Ansem came back, but he shook his head and instead said, "He believes that as long as he works for Imhotep, he'll be safe from being killed by him. But in reality, he was tricked and before he knows it, his fate will be the same as everyone elses."

"How do you know?" Jonathan asked, confused at what the fifteen year old was saying.

The silver-haired teen lowered his head a little and said, "I...sort of had a similiar situation not that long ago, and that was me being stupid and naive."

Deciding not the question Riku about this since they more important things to worry about, Rick dragged Beni over to Axel who summoned his Chakrams, and the former said to the whimpy man, "What are you looking for? And try not to lie to me." holding him up close to Axel's Chakrams that were held up and just one inch from touching his neck.

Screaming, Beni quickly answered, "The Book! The black book they found back in Hamunaptra. He wants it back. He said to me that it would be worth it's weight in gold."

"What does he want the book for?" Mickey demanded. He had a feeling that Axel's thoery back at the museum was most likely right, but he wanted to make sure just in case the redhead was wrong.

"Oh come on, I don't know-AH!" Beni was cut off when the blades of Axel's weapons were inched closer to his neck and he said truthfully this time, "Something about bringing his dead girlfriend back to life! That's all he wants, the book, I swear." as Rick drew him away from Axel while Beni continued, "Just the book, I swear." before adding to Jonathan, "And your sister. But other than that, nothing else!"

Axel sighed as he lowered his weapons and looked at the group, saying, "See? I told ya that undead guy needed a girl's body to replace his girlfriend's dead body."

Mickey shook his head as he uncomfortably rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Well...I can't say that I'm too happy on what the mummy did, though I have to admit it I know how he would feel if anything happened to my girlfriend. But I wouldn't go as far as doing something like this!"

"Wait a minute..." Tifa spoke up, confused. "What am I missing here?"

"A lot." Riku and Axel both said in unison, and just half a second later a high-pitched and terrified girlish scream was heard from outside, alarming them, Mickey, Rick, Jonathan and Tifa. Beni saw this chance to knee into Rick's stomach and quickly escaped before even Axel and Riku could catch him. Suddenly they and Mickey both felt familiar and power darkness very close by while Beni leaped from the window and crashed into crates down below. When he stood up, he saw what was going on and made his escape since he didn't want to see the poor victum's body.

Riku, Mickey, Axel, Rick, Jonathan and Tifa approached the window and gazed down at the bazaar below and to their horror, Vanitas, a bunch of blue jittery things and Heartless were moving away as they revealled a now dead skeletion of Allen, with the cloaked figure taking both the Book of the Dead and the Canobic jar and stood up. The six of them then realised what just happened and that they were too late yet again.

The five of them knew who the cloaked person was as well, and while Tifa covered her mouth in sheer horror of the skeletion of the dead man, Vanitas also sensed their pressence and looked up before sighing, " _ **Don't look now, but we've got annoying company.**_ "

Realising what Vanitas was talking about, Imhotep slowly turned around and recongised five of the group and while he knew the woman with them wasn't who he was intending to capture, he still glared at all six of them. He looked like a zombie with holes in his body, and just a moment later he gapped open his mouth and lets out a large swarm of deadly flies towards the group.

"Uh-oh!" Mickey gasped as he and the others quickly ducked back and slammed the shutters shut just in time, while Vanitas and Imhotep both glanced at each other before moving on, and the Heartless and the blue jittery things vanished, waiting for their masters's next orders.

Riku, Mickey, Axel, Tifa, Rick and Jonathan all glanced at each other, with Tifa saying in utter disbelief while trying to shake the image of the skeletion of Allen and the moving corpse of the mummy out of her head, "I can't believe anyone's capable of doing something like this! Now I can't ignore it!"

"You're welcome to try and help to stop this undead bad guy, if you want." Axel said with a bit of an unusual freaked out expression of his own. Fear was the last thing he had on his mind to feel and he was beginning to think that maybe he was just using this by memory. One thing for certain, he made it clear to himself not to inform the superior about this world.

"W-well, that's two down, and two to go..." Mickey said shakily. He was visibly shaken with the horrors he's been seeing lately that was starting to make him think that Heartless, dragons, ghosts and even giants were not so scary anymore.

Jonathan looked very panicked as he added, "And then he'll come after Evy."

"Let's go!" Riku told them firmly, "The others are now in serious danger themselves!" leading the group back to the hotel now try and save Daniels, Henderson and Evy.

* * *

Back in Evy's room, Daniels and Henderson were weary and freaked out, with Evy still locked up in her room. Eventually, the former couldn't take it anymore and grumbled, "To hell with this." before telling his friend, "I'm going downstairs to get me a drink. You want somethin'?"

"Yeah, get me a glass bourdon." Henderson replied, as Daniels called the door behind him which he promised he would get the glass bourdon. But just a few minutes after his friend left, suddenly there was a gust of wind blowing from the opening window and Henderson stood up quickly and drew out his gun.

Too bad he never got the chance to use it(not that it would help him in the first place), because seconds after that a mass of swirling sand came through the window and lifting him into the air as he screamed while his body was twisted and turned and slowly shrivels the life out of him until he was rendered a skeletion and tossed to the floor like a broken doll. The sand then formed into a human shape which was Imhotep who know looked almost human, save for the still mummified mouth as he gazed at the closed doors, instantly knowing who was in there.

He had sent Vanitas to track down Beni since Imhotep himself would be just fine on his own, as he approached the doors.

* * *

Evy, having calmed down, decided to have gone to bed and was now sleeping, though she began to toss and turn, unaware that sand began to seep through the keyhole of the locked doors, pouring onto the floor and forming a sand dune which then transforms into Imhotep.

While thinking about his own lost love, Imhotep leans over and kisses Evy who then stirs awake and then she found herself face to face with the mummy sucking the life out of her and she muffled a scream, just as the doors bursted open and the two broke the kiss to find the furious Rick, the angry looks from Riku, Mickey, Axel and Tifa, and the paralyzed expression Jonathan at the doorway.

"Hey! She's not for you, pal!" Mickey yelled out.

While Evy stumbled to the other side of the bed in panic, Imhotep glared at the group and threatened them in ancient egyptain that neither of them understood, but for once Mickey wasn't afraid. Instead, he became somewhat cocky and grinned, "Well, I've got a better present for ya. Surprise!" he held up the pretty white cat from earlier. He made sure to stop and look for the cat, just in case.

The mummy shrieked in fright as the cat hissed, causing Imhotep to scream before he once again turned to a burst of sand and escaped the room through another window, leaving the somewhat tramutized group behind.

"Some birthday present that was." Axel joked after a few moments.

"You alright?" Rick asked to Evy who nodded.

Jonathan on the other hand, thinking that Rick was asking him, replied with a bit of an heaving, "Well, I'm not sure." which earned him skeptical looks from the group including his sister.

Mickey gave the somewhat tramutized cat a pat on the head while saying to it, "Aw, I'm really sorry for doin' that to ya. Everything's gonna be okay." before putting down and let the cat walk away.

"Okay, that's three down and one to go." Riku sighed in guilt, before shaking it away, knowing that time was running out faster than they all knew. "We have to get to the museum and fast."

Everyone else nodded in agreement and while the group left the room to give Evy privicy to change, fifteen minutes later they found Daniels and told him the devastating news of both Allen and Henderson's demises before quickly leaving to head back to the Museum, taking out Heartless along the way while Tifa introduced herself to Evy and Daniels.

* * *

When Riku and the others arrived at the Museum, they met up with Ardeth and Terrance who joined about Tifa's appearence and once they got the story that she offered to help with the situation and was slightly tramutized with the situation, they allowed her to join in the investigation on how to stop Imhotep once and for all.

"So let me get this straight." Tifa began as the group made their way upstairs, "Are you saying that this black book that mummy took is the reason why he's moving around in the first place?"

"Yes, well according to legend, the black book the Americans found at Hamunaptra is supposed to bring people back from the dead." Evy explained before admitting, "Untill now, it was a notion I was unwilling to believe."

Rick shook his head and told the woman, "Well, you'd better believe it. It brought our old buddy back to life, and we didn't even read the damn thing. That kid with the black spiky hair did that."

"Yes, well, I'm thinking," Evy continued, "That if the black book can bring dead people back to life,"

Realization dawn to the others and Riku said with a stunned expression, "Then the book you were looking can send the mummy back to the Underworld."

"That I'm willing to believe." Axel thought, with a hint of relief in his voice.

"So that means, all we have to do is find the golden book and use it to make the mummy go away." Mickey realised, with slight excitement.

The group nodded in agreement, but then Mickey, Riku and Axel paused in their steps as they felt familiar darkness. Turning around to the window, their expressions turned dark and serious as they approached the window, with the others following when they noticed the three of them heading there for some reason. When they all arrived at the window, they saw a bunch of Heartless of most kinds make their way towards the entrance of the Museum, along with the blue jittery monsters.

Jonathan gulped, "I don't know where those monsters come from, but so much for the Boils and Sores plauge."

"He's using the Heartless and the Unversed." Mickey realised as he also recongised the blue jittering monsters as well.

"Unversed?" Riku asked, a little puzzled on how Mickey also knew the name of the blue monsters. Even Axel, who still wanted to get answers from Mickey about Vanitas, was a bit shocked about this reveal as well.

"So it has begun." Ardeth thought grimly, "The beginning of the end."

"No. It's not over yet." Riku told them with determination. Evy and Mickey both nodded in agreement and they and the rest of the group quickly went to continue their investigation to try and find the golden book to stop Imhotep and Vanitas once and for all.

* * *

' _The boils and sores plauge was so stupid. The Heartless and the Unversed could to much better than a bunch of villagers._ ' Vanitas thought to himself as he marched along with Imhotep and the nervous Beni towards the Museum where Evy was.

Imhotep then shouted something in ancient egyptian in which the Heartless and the Unversed, under his command while secretly plotting to take his heart which was plunged closer and closer into darkness, made to break their way into the museum for more hearts and to capture Evy and the final victum of the curse needed to restore Imhotep to his human form. The doors were locked and since they acted on instinct, they didn't think to teleport their way in.

* * *

"According to Bembridge scolars, the gold book of Amun-Ra is located in the statue of Anubis." Evy said as she and Terrance scanned the tablet while Riku, Mickey and Axel had their weapons summoned, just in case.

"That's where we found the black book." Daniels pointed out.

"I guess they mixed the books up." Mickey thought, while he was starting to becoming increasingly panicked and he knew that he shouldn't be afraid. Otherwise that would just increase the strengths of the Heartless.

Riku was in a similiar position while Evy continued to search, and the doors kept on getting banged by the Heartless and the Unversed outside, and the locks wouldn't hold much longer. He then urged, "Evy, please hurry up!"

"Patience is a virtue." Evelyn replied in a sing-song tone.

Rick gazed down from the floor he and the others were at with Ardeth and Axel, and the three men turned to gaze at the librarian before the former said while shaking his head, "Not right now it isn't."

"I've got it! The golden book of Amun-Ra is inside the statue of Horus!" Evy said, before turning and she gave a big grin of victory as she mentally told the people who rejected her application form, "Take that, bembridge scolars!" just the Heartless and the Unversed finally broke in and began to rampage the room.

"Save the victory party for when the undead guy is gone!" Axel advised as he quickly slashed one Heartless in half that leaped from the ground and towards the group. He burned another with a fire attack at an Unversed next.

Mickey once again preformed his triple air-sulmorsault and used his Keyblade to knock out both Heartless and Unversed in those hits in one of his best speeding abillities.

Riku cleaved three Heartless in one hit with his Soul Eater blade and clashed downward at a fairly large Unversed, before he turned around and stabbed a Heartless right into the chest before it could slice him into pieces with it's own weapon which was an axe for some reason.

Ardeth sliced another Heartless in half with his sword that he brought out, while Rick and Daniels both pulled out their handguns and shot the Unversed into oblivion with just single shots like they normally would.

Tifa punched and kicked at Heartless that attempted to get to her, before she grabbed one and leaped into the air before tossing it down so fast that no one even saw that coming and the Heartless crashed into other Heartless and Unversed into a pile that caused them to become stuck onto each other, while Tifa herself landed back to the others who stared in shock.

Deciding to ask about Tifa's skills later, the group then made a run for it through the back door as Mickey used some power of his light orbs to blast the Heartless and the Unversed away as he went to give the group more time to escape and to avoid Imhotep and Vanitas. They made it outside and made a run for it to find a place to hide and then figure out a way to return the City of the Dead.

Unfortunately Daniels was then quickly surrounded by Heartless and as the group tried to turn back they were surrounded by more Heartless and Unversed that were pushing them away into a corner while he began to shoot at the Heartless until his ammo was empty. He was backed into one corner as Imhotep and Vanitas appeared.

Daniels screamed as Imhotep sucked the life out of him, and Mickey, Tifa, Riku and Evy all turned away in horror at the sight before them while Rick, Ardeth, Jonathan, Terrance, and even Axel all had their eyes widened in sheer horror on what was happening. Even Beni couldn't handle the sight as he turned away slightly from the grusome event.

' _Great. I'll be having nightmares for the rest of my life._ ' Axel thought to himself.

This task done and taking the canobic jar from the now dead Daniels, the mummy turned the group, now no longer looking undead, but very much human and he grinned evilly at the group. It was done. He was fully regenerated. Rick, Riku and Mickey all stood in front of Evy in attempts to protect her from the evil man despite knowing that their chances of winning in this battle was slim to none.

" _Keetah mi pharos._ " said Imhotep in ancient Egyptain to Evy. " _Aja nilo, isirian._ "

"Come with me, my Princess." Beni tried to translate. "It's time to make you mine, forever."

Evy glared at him, correcting in annoyance, "'For all eternity', idiot!"

"I was just about to say that, lady." Vanitas said to the woman, for once glad he wasn't the only one who thought Beni was an idiot.

" _Koontash dai na._ " Imhotep continued, extending his hand towards Evy.

"Take my hand, and I shall spare your friends." Beni translated again which made Rick, Riku, Mickey and Axel glare, not beliving the words even for a second.

"Yeah, right." Axel said glaring. "You're lying and you know it." he should know, because he was the best at lying that he could pick up lies from others, even back when he was known as Lea in his teenage years. The only one who could catch on his own lies was Saix who had that skill of picking up Lea's lies when he was Isa in their teenage years.

"We won't let you take Evelyn." Riku told Imhotep boldly. He also mentally crinkled his nose in disgust at the foul stentch the human-formed mummy was giving which somehow got worse now that the latter was fully regenerated. He also mentally hissed in pain as the darkness in his own heart began to react again but he told that darkness to behave itself.

"Well, do either of you have any bright ideas?" Evy asked to Rick.

"I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'." Rick said as he glared at Imhotep. "Give me a minute."

Evy suddenly made a decision and told him, "You better think of something fast, because if he turns me into a mummy, you'll be the first one I'm coming after." and to the group's shock, walks over to Imhotep.

"Wait!" Mickey cried out as he, Riku and Rick made to stop Evy, but Ardeth blocks them since he knew what she was doing despite the difficult decision.

"Don't!" Evy told the group, "He still has to take us to Hamunaptra to preform the ritual."

"She's right." Ardeth agreed, "Live today, fight tomorrow."

Axel shook his head and said to Evy, "Bad idea. You really shouldn't have done that, because he's gonna kill us whether you voulenteer or not, lady."

Vanitas smirked as he approached the group and digged into Jonathan's front pockets and pulled out the key as the latter said childishly, "Hey, that's mine!"

"Thanks for the gift. Got presents for you losers too." Vanitas grinned evilly as he opened up a Corridor of Darkness as Imhotep dragged the now shocked Evy who began to struggle but his grip was too strong for her, and Beni, hesitating, followed. "See you idiots in the Realm of Darkness." Vanitas said as he followed into the corridor before disappearing.

The Heartless and the Unversed then made their way slowy towards their prey who backed up as Rick shouted, "Okay, now what do we do!?"

Riku shut his eyes tightly as he tried to think of something, anything, to get his friends and himself out of his situation, but so far nothing came, and with great guilt and realization, this world was going to fall into darkness, and he and everyone would end up back trapped into the Realm of Darkness and disappear forever. He felt so useless. If only Sora was here.

Mickey then grunted, "Well, desperate times calls for desperate measures!" as he digged into his pockets and pulled out a star-shaped crystal with a lightning bolt onto it, "Everybody gather around me! Just hope this will work!"

"What about my sister?" Jonathan asked as he and the others gathered around Mickey, none of them knowing what the king had in mind with a crystal in his hand.

"If this works, then we'll get her back!" Mickey said, knowing that if this worked, then it was the only way to get out of the Heartless and the Unversed's paths. He then held it up in the air and concentrated hard with his eyes shut tightly.

The next thing the group knew, the crystal glowed in bright light and before they knew it, they were all engulfed and turned into a shooting star like pattern that zipped away, their surprised and shocked screams fading as the light disappeared into the sky and into the distance of the desert. The light also eliminated the Heartless and the Unversed due to being weak against the power of the light.

On it's way towards the City of the Dead.

* * *

 **A/N: We're getting closer to the end of the story. I've cut out some scenes to make sure it wasn't a repeat of "Sailor Moon VS the Mummy". Hope you liked this chapter.**


	9. Chapter 8: On the Way to Imhotep's Death

**Author's note: Sorry that it's late. Had trouble and all that. Now I've finally managed to update this story with a new chapter and I think this will be the last chapter or the second last at the least.**

 **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.**

* * *

Chapter 8: On the Way to Imhotep's Death.

Near the city of the Dead which was just a short walk, the StarShard's light was seening zipping from the sky and screams could be heard until finally it's spell wore off and now the group of Mickey, Riku, Axel, Tifa, Rick, Jonathan, Ardeth and Terrance were left in mid-air for a few seconds until they all went plummeting down towards the earth as they screamed and all crashed landed into the sand dunes. All groaned at the hard landing and some of them were a bit dizzy.

"Ow..." Axel groaned as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Geez, that was the worst trip I've ever had. Next time I'm bringing a paracute, for crying out loud." as he then stood up and dusted himself off from the sand that sticked to his coat.

Riku shook his head to rid the dizzy spells, seeing stars in his vision before they finally cleared and sighed, "Wow...that was some flight."

Mickey was wobbly on his legs as stars circled around his head and he could hear birds chirping before he held his head and then shook it to rid the dizziness, and sighed in relief that the Starshard had actually worked despite what Vanitas had done. Pocketing the shard back into his pockets, he asked around, "Is everyone alright?"

There were mumurs of 'I'm ok' and that...except from Jonathan who somehow got stuck waist-deep into the sand that he had trouble getting out off and he was clearly very irritated by this as he called out, "Excuse me? Um, a little help would be useful...IF IT'S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE!"

"Yeah, yeah, alright." Rick replied as he, Riku and a reluctanted Axel went over and all heaved and pulled Jonathan out of the dunes while Ardeth made sure that Terrance was alright.

"Where are we?" Tifa asked as she looked around. The entire area around her was unfamiliar and in the distance she could see the ruins of the City of the Dead, while everything else were barren cliffs and nothing but sand everywhere no matter where she looked.

Riku, Mickey, Rick, Ardeth, Jonathan(who was grumbling about the trip), Axel, and Terrance all gazed in the direction Tifa was staring at, and most of them couldn't believe that they had made it back, or in Terrance's case, for the first time. Either way that works.

"We're back at Hamunaptra." Mickey answered with wide eyes.

"How the hell did we get back here so quickly?" Rick asked, dumbfounded. He then remembered what Mickey had used and he, along with Jonathan, Ardeth, Terrance, Axel and Tifa turned to gaze at the said mouse who, seeing the stars gazed at him, shifted uncomfortably as he twirled his foot a little in the sand while having his hands behind his back, knowing that he and Riku were in trouble due to what he had to do in order to get them to safety and to where Evy, Imhotep, Beni and Vanitas were.

Gulping nervously, Mickey began, "Well...t-this isn't what it looks like..."

* * *

 _Five minutes later..._

After deciding that, with no other choice, Mickey, Riku, even Tifa and even a very uncomfortable Axel told Rick and the others the truth about where they actually came from and why they kept it secret due to the World Order, especially since Vanitas had broken the rules due to the Corridor of Darkness and such, though Axel left out on the part that he was part of Organization XIII, Jonathan was even more confused, Ardeth and Terrance were shocked and stunned beyond belief, and Rick, well...he was even more annoyed and dumbfounded as he was when the entire thing started.

"So let me get this straight." Rick began, trying to clear up the confusion in his head. "Some bad guy from another world, in which other worlds have people like us, and whatever else, tried to wipe out everything with those black creepy monster things you guys call Heartless, to use something that's just as dangerous as the Book of Dead to bring back the dead, and he was stopped by two of your friends and Riku's friend who is really just a fourteen year old kid?"

"Pretty much." Riku answered with a shrug. "Worse part is, Ansem tricked me into giving my heart to darkness and it took Sora and Mickey to save me. If it weren't for them...I wouldn't be here right now."

"And that Vanitas kid...you said that he's not even human and he can actually control those blue things you call the Unversed and he's supposed to be dead just like the Mummy?" Rick asked once more, this time directly at Mickey who nodded.

"Yep." Mickey replied, "I'm not sure how he came back, though. It was ten years ago that he was defeated along with somebody else who also caused problems. The main reason why Riku and I were brought to this world was the powerful darkness coming from Imhotep and I'm pretty sure Vanitas is using him to cast the entire world into darkness."

"So that's why he read the Book of the Dead 'cause he's just as crazy as Imhotep." Rick summed up.

Axel scoffed, "Well, that's at least easy to sum up about the kid himself. No wonder he's dangerous. That doesn't explain why he's getting at me, though." with his arms folded to his chest. While he now understood Mickey's history with Vanitas, Axel still found it confusing on why the kid himself brought him here. It doesn't make any sense.

"So your reason for not revealing the truth was to keep the World Order to protect all worlds." Ardeth concluded as he gazed at both Mickey and Riku. "You two had lived to tell the tale and were brought here to defeat the monster."

"We're sorry for lying to you." Riku lowered his head in guilt, as did Mickey, to Rick and Jonathan.

"Oh no no. It's fine." Jonathan dismissively said. "I lie to everybody almost all the time. At least your reasons are alot better than mine."

Rick, while very annoyed about all of this, decided that it did make sense at the same time before shrugging as he said to Riku and Mickey, "After everything's been happening for the last week, at least you kids were doing the right thing."

"I guess everyone has their reasons for not telling anyone their secrets." Tifa muttered as she gazed ahead of her, after listening to the conversation. When everyone gazed at her, the young woman admitted, "I left my world to find my friend who's heart's been affected by someone I know. I didn't know that he and Riku had that much in common."

"You mean your friend you're lookin' for?" Mickey asked, curiously.

"Yeah." Tifa nodded, "His name is Cloud and we've known each other since we were children. The man responsible for what's happening to him is Sephiroth, who just as twisted. He says that he's the darkness in Cloud's heart."

"Just as Ansem's darkness was inside me." Riku realised, in shock as well as more guilt. Well, at least he wasn't the only one struggling with one's inner darkness in his heart. But Cloud...was he just as similiar as Riku? Or was Tifa's said friend's reason different if he's missing that caused Tifa to go and find him despite the risks?

Axel sighed before suggesting, "Not to cut this conversation short, but don't you think we should get a move on and try and save O'Connall's girlfriend and stop the Mummy and the crazy kid who's supposed to be dead too?"

"I agree. However, I'm not good in combat, but I will do my best." Terrance nodded in agreement. "The creature must be stopped once and for all."

The group nodded in agreement, before they all began trekking towards the City of the Dead and onward towards the final battles that lie just ahead of them. The outcome was unknown, but as far as Riku and his friends were concerned, the fate of this world and Evy's life depended on them and even on Axel who more than anything just wanted to get home and pretend this venture was just one delayed and crazy nightmare, still unaware of his future connections that has brought him here in the first place.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Imhotep led Vantias, Beni and Evy who was looking around the entire room with fear and awe as she knew that this was the ritual room, which was not only dark, but it was also covered in years of cobwebs and then some...well, after 3,000 years, it had to be now, would it? The four arrived at what appeared to be a wall with carvings on it halfway towards their destination when Vanitas froze suddenly, before his eyes narrowed before turning his head to where he could sense familiar pressence.

" _ **Don't look now, but it looks like those idiots are still alive and here.**_ " Vanitas spoke in ancient egyptain to Imhotep who was holding canobic jars that weren't just from Anck-Su-Namun's. He can not only sense the pressence of light from King Mickey or some of the others, but also smell the darkness from both Riku and Axel.

Despite that Beni had no idea what Vanitas just said at the moment, Evy somehow understood and relief washed over her expression. So Rick and the others had come back to rescue her and set things right. Even better still, they were still alive.

Imhotep, not impressed with this, gave Vanitas a look before he poured something into his hands. He turned to the wall and blew the stuff onto it. He then spoke something like a chanting in Ancient Egyptain. After a few tensed moments and some inhuman moaning that echoed through out the room, not only Heartless and Unversed appeared, but from the wall, two mummies came ripping themselves out from it, shattering the stone and concrete before bowing to Imhotep. Evy and Beni both took a few steps back in shock, horror and disbelief while Vanitas smirked.

' _Well, I'm impressed by that. Even though it is admittedly disgusting._ ' Vanitas thought to himself.

" _ **Kill them. And wake the others.**_ " Imhotep commanded to two of his new minions, who slaggered off to do as he commanded.

So with this out of the way, now it was time to get to the more important matters on hand.

* * *

Meanwhile, going through the tunnels of the City of the Dead to find Evy, Imhotep, Beni and Vanitas, Riku, Mickey, Rick, Jonathan, Axel, Tifa, Ardeth and Terrance one by one slipped out through the crack in the wall to another room and were glad that nothing was waiting for them on the other side. It was admittedly dark, but then Rick noticed something familiar above him. A mirror to be used for light. Having an idea, he pulled out a pistol and shot at it, causing it to tilt upward, and light up the entire room.

Everyone's mouths dropped a little as they looked at the treasure room they were seeing. Though the only one who actually cared about all of his was Jonathan as his mouth was dropped wider than anyone else's, as he and the others walked on slowly, gazing around while also making sure there weren't any kinds of danger.

"Can you see-" Jonathan breathed, soundless and amazed.

"Yup." Mickey replied.

"Can you believe-"

"Yeah." Axel replied.

"Can we just-"

"No." Riku and Rick inadvertedly chorused, which made Tifa giggle at the look of disappointment on Jonathan's expression.

However, the moment was cut off when Riku, Mickey and Axel sensed something behind them and the others and a second later an croaky sound caused all of them to spun around, most of them with weapons drawn and Tifa balling her fists to fight just in case, just as a mummified hand came crushing through the ground, pulling it's body out. Soon one by one, more joined it, as well as Heartless and Unversed appeared from the darkness, preparing to slowly advance on the group who froze, eyes widened.

"These guys are just as scary as Imhotep." Mickey admitted, feeling a cold shiver down his spine.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Rick asked to Ardeth and Terrance, about the mummies.

"Imhotep's priests." Terrance answered.

"Fair enough." Axel replied, before tossing his Chakrams at all of the enemies, slicing through the much slower mummies and slicing them in half, killing them instantly before he caught his weapons which returned to him.

Rick shot fires through the rifle while Ardeth and Terrance sliced through the enemies that came to them, including the Heartless and Unversed. Jonathan pulled out two of Ricks' pistols and shot fires at them as well. Riku blocked off both of the human-sized Heartless and the human-sized mummy-like Unversed before blasting Dark Firaga at them, burning them into oblivion. Mickey leaped over the monsters before preforming his triple-air sommer-sault, knocking down the enemies. Tifa punched the Heartless, the Unversed and the Mummies with a single punch each before twirling around and delivered a kick to another mummy in it's decaying stomach.

However it was quickly apparent that there were too many of them and so the group were forced to fight while reteating backwards down through another tunnel in their search to find the statue of Horus as well as Evy, Imhotep and Vanitas, unaware that Beni, who had decided that now was the time to leave, had arrived in the treasure room and was gazing around at all of the treasure.

Despite the firing lines, the swordsman skills, the chakrams and fire skills, and martial arts skills, Riku and the others were really struggling against the seemingly never ending horde of Heartless, Unversed and Mummies. Jonathan in the meantime, was the first to enter another chamber, before he realised where they were.

"There he is!" Jonathan cried out, lighting the room through the brazier, "Hello, Horus, old boy!"

The others in the meantime, were still fighting off the enemies when Axel realised there was only one way to solve this problem. He turned to the others and told them, "You guys hide behind the statue! What I'm about to do is very dangerous!"

"Are you gonna take them down on your own?" Mickey asked, shocked at the Nobody's sudden nobleness, as was Riku. Especially since Axel was a member of Organization XIII. Still, the two of them and the others dove behind the statue of Horus, heeding the young man's warning.

The redhead grinned, "Nah. I can handle these punks. Watch this!"

Axel then held his chakrams together and under his force of energy and growing fire rage, he blasted a large powerful blast of fire into the tunnels where the Heartless, Unversed and the Mummies couldn't escape the wrath of the Flurry of Dancing Flames. They were sent into a fiery oblivion, with the mummies squealling and some rocks falling from the entrance.

When the others came from behind the statue of Horus, their eyes widened at what just happened. Axel in the meantime, panted before falling onto his butt and wiped sweat from his forehead. Sure he managed to stop the Heartless, Unversed and mummies, but boy did that take a lot out of him. He made a mental note to not do something like that again.

"Whoa..." Riku whispered, awed.

"Are you alright?" Mickey found himself asking Axel. Nobody or not, the king knew he had to be grateful for Axel's actions so far.

Smirking a little weakly, Axel gazed at both Mickey and Riku, jokingly saying, "Take my advice; Don't use your whole being into an attack unless it's necessary." while Rick and Jonathan both immediately began digging through the bottom of the statue while Ardeth and Terrance were both reflexing themselves for the more fights just ahead of them shortly and Tifa was looking around for a short-cut to where Evy and the villians were.

"Sounds weird when it's coming from you." Riku pointed out. Even though he had to admit it, what Axel did was rather impressive.

"Whatever." Axel shrugged.

However, more croaking went off as the three of them and everyone else turned and looked down the bath to the gold room, cutting their talk in half. The shadows of the Priests were making their way down the hall, slowly but surely. And there was a lot. Riku couldn't help but groan, "Ugh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

" _Well, what did you expect? Darkness will always continue to come, and you know it._ " Ansem's voice, at least that's what sounded like to Riku, echoed in the boy's head. The teen shut his eyes tightly as he felt the familiar throbbing pain enter his heart again, causing him to clutch his chest with one hand and suddenly fall onto one knee, panting softly.

"Riku!" Mickey cried out, reaching over to his friend. This was the second time in many days that this happened to Riku. First was just before they arrived here in this world, while both Ardeth and Terrance clashed against the Mummies with offered rifles after telling Rick and Jonathan to keep digging. Tifa immediately helped to get the book out while Axel then stood up and clashed against more Heartless and Unversed that appeared shortly after.

Riku didn't hear either Mickey or what was going on. The pain was steadily becoming worse, and suddenly his heart froze in realization. That's why he was brought here. Whatever's left of Ansem wanted to take over his heart and absorb the darkness from Imhotep since this world was about to be casted into darkness. His blood ran cold and his breathing quickened. How could he have not seen this sooner? He'd been right. Ansem was still inside him. No! It can't be happening! Not again!

Shutting his eyes tighter, Riku willed the pain and the darkness of Ansem to go away, trying with all of his inner might and even thought about all of his friends; Sora. Kairi. Mickey. Rick. Jonathan. Evy. Tifa. Ardeth.

' _Ansem...you can't have me!_ ' Riku shouted in his mind, and for a split second, he thought he saw himself, slashing his Soul-Eater sword at the ghostly form of Ansem who stood shocked for a moment, before he heard the man's scream of anger and agony before it faded and light covered his vision.

Reality then came back to him as Riku's eyes snapped open, finding himself being pushed to safey by Mickey when a Heartless attempted to attack them before Axel slashed it into two halfs and sending it back into darkness. Dazed at what just happened, Riku blinked before gazing at Mickey who looked so worried that the king actually began to have tears form in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Mickey asked, worriedly.

"Y-yeah." Riku nodded, finding himself panting.

"Save the girl." Ardeth suddenly spoke up as he and Terrance turned to them and the others who looked up in return, after Rick, Jonathan and Tifa had finally pulled the Book of Amun-Ra, which looked like a golden version of the Book of the Dead. Ardeth then continued with determination, "Kill the creature!"

With a nod to Terrance who gave him a nod in return, he and Ardeth both gave out a roar before the two Medjai dove into the priests and shoved and slashed at them, much to the shock of Riku and the others. He, Tifa and Mickey both made to jump in to save them, but Axel held them back with a look that said that there wasn't anything they could do and that they, Rick and Jonathan had to focus now on saving Evy and stopping both Imhotep and Vanitas.

Rick, having the same idea even though he didn't like it, lit another stick of dynamite and tossed it towards another side of the wall before he and the others move out of the way when it exploded and blasted away the last of the mummies since both of the Medjai would have to fend for themselves. He led the others into the newly made tunnel and towards where they would save Evy and end this nightmare for good.

* * *

Evy, unconscious for a short period of time after being knocked out by Vanitas, slowly woke up to find herself chained on a table. She then felt something moving on her stomach, and when she looked, a fat, disgusting rat was on her, and she freaked out, before she moved to the left to get off of her, only to scream as next to her, was a corpse of a woman. She then tried to free herself, but the chains held her hands and her ankles, and to her dismay, more mummy priests like the two she witnessed before approached.

The Mummies knelt around her and the dead body, while Imhotep approached with the Book of the Dead, opening it with the key-box before placing it inside his robe. Vanitas in the meantime, stood leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

Realising that the ritual was taking place, Evy screamed out for help while Imhotep read the book and chanted the spell. Evy then looked to her right, as in the waters that led to the Underworld, the blue-gray liquids came up and a spirit towards the dead body which is the corpse of Anck-Su-Namun, and to Evy's horror, the spirit absorbed itself into the dead body which gasped and shrieked.

Evy let's out a terrified screamed at the sight, before looking to her right again, to find that Imhotep was now beside her, with a golden dagger as he raised it into the air.

" _ **With your death, Anck-Su-Namun shall live.**_ " Imhotep said in Ancient Egyptain, preparing to kill Evy, " _ **And I...SHALL BE INVINCIBLE!**_ " and Evy lets out a scream.

"Hey, baldy!" A familiar cocky voice came shouting, that caused Imhotep to pause, and as he, Evy, Vanitas and Anck-Su-Namun looked up, on the top of the stairs, Axel was there, glaring heatedly at the Mummy, "It's not very nice to go and attack innocent girls like that. Got it memorized?"

"What are you doing here!?" Vanitas demanded with wide eyes, unable to believe what he was actually seeing.

"Eh, ya'know. Just doing what I feel like doing." Axel replied sarcastically, secretly smirking as while Jonathan had made to show Evy the book, but was hiding since Axel made a point that it would only make things embarrassing and so had decided to let Axel be the distraction. The redhead continued, "So, why don'tcha come after me first, Mr. Gooey Almighty?"

Imhotep, far from pleased, decided to take the foolish man's offer and made to approach him, placing the knife down next to Anck-Su-Namun while Vantias decided to join him as well to finish off the Nobody. Both of them were unaware however, that Riku, Mickey, and Rick, who found a sword to fight with all jumped into action and began free Evy, with Mickey using the Kingdom Key-D keyblade to unlock the keyholes of the chains and shackles, before having her go to Tifa who then had her take shelter to where Jonathan was hiding before she raced back to join the others.

( **~Final Boss Phase 1-KH0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage~** )

The Mummy noticed. In Ancient Egytptian, he ordered his priests to kill the group, which they then tried to, but the mummies were instead being sliced and killed themselves by Riku and his friends. The Mummy himself and Vanitas then took on Axel who blocked Vanitas's Keyblade and Imhotep's punches as hard as he could. Tifa, at first punching at the Mummies, soon found herself facing against Anck-Su-Namun who was wielding the knife Imhotep attempted to use to kill Evy.

Riku used his Soul Eater and clashed against one of the Priest-Mummies, dodge-rolling out of the way before kicking at his opponent's legs which caused the undead guy to stumble over and fall onto the ground. Riku then quickly got up and knocked the back of the Mummy Priest, sending it into the water before casting Firaga at another, causing it to burst into flames and then leaped into the air before he descended by cleaving another one in half, which was gooey and disgusting, but he did his best to ignore this as he went for others. Riku then slashed thinly at the two mummies at attempted to get to him, but were immediately destroyed, before he moved to use a dark-fire with one hand and blasted it onto another one with the same result.

Mickey was slicing and slashing away the mummies as well, before he did a triple-air-somersaults while knocking one of the mummies out with his Kingdom Key-D Keyblade. He then whirled around and chanted blizzard to turn two of the priests into mummy-icicles before shattering them into several pieces. It was gross, but he tried to get the image out of his mind. Mickey swished and slashed at three mummies that attempted to attack him, and were quickly defeated in each single hits he gave, before casting a gravita spell that had two more mummies stuck in mid-air. He then leaped up and slashed them in a single hit before landing safely on the ground and the spell eased off, but the heartless were already gone.

Rick slashed and sliced each mummies into several pieces with the sword he was using, knocking away one's head like a bat before he was was then dragged onto the ground and trapped by two mummies, while a third held up a heavy stone that would kill him if dropped. Fortunately, with his sword just an inch away, Rick managed to grab it before thrusting it to the side and sliced off the Mummy's leg's. The Mummy, screaming in realization and horror, fell backwards and was flattened by the stone-slab it carried due to having been sliced from it's legs.

Tifa was punching at Anck-Su-Namun while grasping at the female Mummy's wrists to make the latter drop the knife before kneeing her in the stomach and then punched the decaying woman's face. As Anck-Su-Namun dropped to the ground, Tifa then sensed movement behind her and whirled around to smash another Mummy's face in, smashing it's head into gooey pieces which she grimced at the grossness of it, shaking away the slimy carcass stuff from her hand before being pulled to the ground by Anck-Su-Namun who pulled her by the ankle. None the less, Tifa kicked her in the face before rolling out of the way and pulled herself up to continue the fight against her opponent.

Axel thrusted out his Chakrams at Vanitas who blocked the weapons with his Keyblade, shoving them back which forced the Nobody to catch them skillfully. He then teleported out of the way to avoid Vanitas' speed which was starting to become difficult, especially when Imhotep then thrusted a punch at him, causing Axel to be flown back to the side before he caught himself by flipping backwards in mid-air and then land safely back on the ground before quickly blocking Vanitas' Keyblade that attempted to slice him in half.

"Time's up!" Riku told the Heartless as he and Mickey joined hands and preformed their special team-work attack and twirled around and around and around with mixture powers of light and a bit of darkness which eliminated the Mummies that attempted to get to them only to get hit painfully and then disappear. Once the attack was finished, the two returned to fighting the mummies solo.

Just then, as Riku shoved another sword-wielding Mummy, he inadvertedly caused it to stumble into Anck-Su-Namun who saw this too late and her horror, she was stabbed into the head by accident, screaming in agony which not only caught the heroes' attentions, but also Axel's, Vanitas's and especially Imhotep's attentions as the latter saw what just happened, his eyes widening in horror at what just happened to the lover he worked so hard to revive.

"ANCK-SU-NAMUN!" Imhotep screamed out in horrified agony.

( **~End Final Boss Phase 1~** )

"...Uh, oops." Riku muttered, shocked at what just happened, as Mickey and Rick both rejoined him.

Axel in the meantime, while knocking into Imhotep, caught sight of the key inside the robe. Having an idea, the redhead immediately snatched it from the stunned Mummy before tossing it to where both Evy and Jonathan were hiding as they'd been unable to open it with out. The said two then saw what was happening and Jonathan surprisingly caught it clumsily. However, Imhotep, in great fury, grasped Axel by the collar of his coat before tossing him to lower level and as the redhead screamed in alarm, he accidently knocked into Tifa, causing both of them to collaspe to the ground and lost consciousness.

"Tifa! Axel!" Riku and Mickey both cried out, before they and Rick jumped slightly in fright as both Imhotep and Vanitas leaped onto the ground on their level, glaring at the two. surrounded by auras of both sand and darkness.

"Now you've done it." Vantias grunted. "I think it's time to finish you guys off for good."

" _ **You will pay!**_ " Imhotep growled dangerously in anger at the trio, who quickly stood ready, weapons drawn even though this was a fight that would be one of their hardest in their entire lives.

( **~Final Boss Phase 2-KH0.2 Birth By Sleep-A Fragmentary Passage~** )

Evy, while she and Jonathan made to open the book, called out to Riku and the others, "Keep them busy!"

"Sure, no problem." Rick replied.

He then took on Imhotep first who dodged his attempts to slice the latter in half before rolling out of the way to avoid in being knocked back by the Mummy. Riku and Mickey on the other hand, focused on Vanitas who was just as furious as Imhotep since the plans were all ruined.

Riku, Mickey and Vanitas clashed weapons against each other before the former two leaped out of the way as the raven-haired boy instantly disappeared before reappearing behind him, tauning, "Too slow." before knocking Riku behind his back.

Riku quickly rolled out of the way before blocking his opponent's second attack when the latter casted a fire of darkness, before casting his own Dark Firaga at Vanitas who teleported once again, in which Riku rolled out of the way again before he was strike by surprise for the second time. Though this gave Riku and Mickey a quick opening as they both managed to at least strike with a couple of combos against Vanitas' chest, knocking him back as he cried out in alarm.

Mickey attempted to use his Blizzard to lower Vanitas' defense, but once again, the latter teleported and reappeared right in front of him, hitting him several times in the stomach as the boy said in disappointment, "Pathetic!"

Vantias thrusted out multiple dark fires at the duo who both leaped out of the way before Riku responded by using his Blizzard right at the enemy who teleported out of the way before reappearing in front of him before Mickey came to his rescue and preformed his triple-air cartwheel, smacking the masked boy off guard severel times before landing and Riku thrusted, slashed and smacked on the masked enemy's side and arms as fast as he could.

The two then leaped out of the way when the masked boy attempted to use dark magic against them, but was caught off-guard once again when Riku leaped and shoved him back with his Soul Eater, succeeding. Despite his, Vanitas was still tough as he teleported once again and trusted a gust of wind at the duo who did their best to block it with their weapon and avoid in getting blown back.

Unfortunately for Riku, Vanitas managed to knock away his Soul Eater before knocking him back into the wall and knocking wind out of him before the teen slumped onto the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't enough to render him unconscious, but it did leave him vulnerable that Vanitas teleported in front of him to finish him off, much to Mickey's horror. The king immediately rushed over to save his friend and successfully distracted him enough for the raven haired boy to spin around and block Mickey's attack, knocking him back in return and causing Riku to cry out his friend's name. Mickey was knocked to the ground and nearly lost the Kingdom Key-D Keyblade, but like with Riku, left him vulnerable. Though Vanitas decided to turn his attention to Riku first to get him out of the way and was about to thrust his Keyblade at the teen who glared back before having no choice but to shield himself with his right arm, something very shocking happened.

As soon as Riku snapped his wrist in his motion to shield himself, a familiar but very much more warmer feeling tingle run down his arm and a clang was heard and he felt no pain on him at all. When Riku looked up, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief, as in his hand, was a weapon that was very similiar to his Soul Eater, but it was more blade like, with a feathered wing teeth on the tip, the hilt having the simliar design, and there was a Key-Chain hanging on the end on it as well, with the symbol that represented the Heartless. Everyone else who saw as well were also shocked by this display.

"B-But how!?" Vanitas gapped in disbelief.

Riku was just as shocked, unable to believe that he was holding the very weapon designed by his heart that he never thought he would have due to his heart gone down to the Darkness and having chosen Sora as well.

It was Riku's very own Keyblade.

Deciding to worry how it was possible later, Riku, using his new Keyblade, shoved Vanitas back before rushing over to Mickey who recovered and rejoined his friend.

"Welp, I guess the Keyblade decided to choose you as well as having chosen Sora after all, Riku." Mickey guessed with a shrug, answering his friend's unasked question.

"Maybe...but I think we should worry about this later. We do have Vanitas to worry about." Riku nodded in agreement.

Vanitas was shocked beyond belief at this, before giving out a roar and attacked the duo to resume their fight.

Riku and Mickey were then forced to leap out the way when Vanitas went for a dive attack from the air after the latter sped up into the air with incredible speed, nearly knocking them over, though it did create a bit of a shock wave that cut a bit from their health, before Riku responded in healing himself with a potion and his companionwho nodded their thanks before trying another new skill and then slide onto the ground just as the boy attempted to slice him in half before an idea hit him and he kicked at the enemy's legs, knocking him to the ground before leaping up and attempted to deliver a finishing blow.

Vanitas easily teleported out of the way just in time before deciding to change opponents and attack Mickey who leaped and jumped away from the enemy's Keyblade slashes before creating his own orb of light and shot it out from his Keyblade, shooting it at the masked boy who blocked it with his Keyblade but the latter did grunt at the sudden power of light.

"C'mon!" Mickey called out to Riku who nodded, following his lead.

"Time's up!" Riku told Vantias as he and Mickey joined hands and preformed their special team-work attack and twirled around and around and around with mixture powers of light and a bit of darkness which Vanitas who attempted to get to them only to get hit painfully and cry out in pain and shock.

But as Riku and Mickey were done with the attack, they all screamed out in pain when Vanitas suddenly reappeared from the ground and created a powerful shock-wave explosion that engulfed them, but not before Mickey quickly chanted barrier to block the rest of the devastating attack while protecting Riku and himself, but they still rechieved agonizing hits that forced them to use Curaga again to heal themselves, even though the healing magic was starting to fade, so they knew that they had to be careful now, or else Vanitas had won this fight.

However, recovering, Vanitas then leaped into the air before thrusting the blade down towards them and even as Riku and Mickey leaped out of the way, they were hit by a powerful shock-wave the moment Vanitas' Keyblade was thrusted into the ground, knocking them back, before the two moved out of the way to avoid getting hit even more, though they were becoming more and more exhausted.

Rick in the meantime, was thrown back by Imhotep for like the third time in a row during the fight and the latter made to approach him, which while both Jonathan and Evy were trying to find the right chant to finish this for good, the older siblig pleaded with his sister as he saw what was happening to Rick, Riku and Mickey, "Hurry, Evy! Hurry!" Jonathan cried as the sister traveled through the book.

"You're not helping!" She replied in a sing-song voice.

Imhotep grabbed Rick's throat in his left hand, grinning evilly at him, as Rick's face were turning blue. He then decided that Rick would be his first victum to kill. " _ **Now, it's your turn.**_ " Imhotep whispered, before he opened his mouth to being to do what he did to the rival group who had died.

"I've got it!" Evy suddenly exclaimed, before chanting in Egyptain, " _Kadeesh mal, Kadeesh mal._ " to which the first words made Imhotep stop what he was doing and even Vanitas to stop and turned to face Evy, as did Riku, Mickey, Rick, and both Tifa and Axel who were regaining consciousness(and who had also noticed Riku's new Keyblade, much to Axel's shock as he muttered to himself, "How did he get a Keyblade like that!?"), and to Imhotep's horror, Evy concluded, " _Pared oos, Pared oos!_ "

A loud roaring, sound of a whip and horses whining made them all turn to look at the top of the stairs as a large blue vortex appeared, and an image of men on the back of a horse-drawn carriage caught their attention. As Imhotep dropped Rick, which he quickly rolled out of the way, everyone watched as the cariot ran right through Imhotep. Something seemed to be dragged out of him as a blue version of himself appeared, trapped and screaming, while the Mummy chased after it, but was too late as the cariot with the blue version of Imhotep disappeared into the vortex which also disappeared.

"What!?" Vanitas gapped in disbelief, which this was the distraction Riku needed, knowing that now was the time to finish this once and for all.

So with a yell, Riku thrusted out his new Keyblade and by the time Vanitas looked, it was too late as the silver-haired teen thrusted right as his chest and through him, catching the raven-haired boy off-guard. ( **~End Final Boss Phase 2~** )

As Riku panted, Vanitas, in horror and realization, dropped his own Keyblade which vanished and melted into darkness, before the raven-haired boy fell backwards and onto his back, where a dark portal he was melting into began to absorb him, losing consciousness as he was unable to believe that he has been defeated again, this time by someone whom he failed to kill to change fate. Finally, Vanitas, before disappearing completely out of existance, spoke weakly to Riku who watched him vanish, "You think...this is over...but...this...is only just...beginning of the end..."

As soon as Vanitas vanished out of existance, something twinkled for a split second, and it only confused Riku, Mickey and Axel who, along with Tifa, rejoined the others while Rick rolled before reclaiming his sword as Imhotep, seeing that Vanitas was gone, turned to glare at his mortal enemies who had taken everything from him.

"I thought you the Book was supposed to make him go away!" Mickey said worriedly, since Imhotep was still alive.

Imhotep gave an angry yell, lunging at Rick but stopped with a grunt as the sword went through him. Mickey's eyes widened and his stomach dropped, which made him freeze on the spot at what just happened. Riku was in the similiar vote and Tifa stood there, stunned beyond belief. Imhotep, shocked himself, lifted his hand up, traces of blood stained.

"He's mortal." Evy replied.

Rick pulled the sword out, shocked at what he just did. Imhotep in the meantime, groaned in sudden pain, held onto his wound, walking backwards, and stepping to the blue liquid, everyone else watching, in some sympathy to watch him slowly die. His skin began to decay once more, turning him back into the gooey mummy their found earlier as he sank, the souls of the Underworld dragging him down slowly to his death.

Imhotep gave them a final look as he said something in ancient egyptain, before he finally sank completely and disappeared. Everyone was silent at this.

"Uh...care to translate that?" Axel asked, uncertainly.

"Death... is only the beginning." Evy translated.

"You mean...it's over?" Tifa asked, blinking.

Riku nodded, "Yeah. It's over."

Just then, the walls began to move and everyone looked around to see that they were slowly descending. Their eyes widened in horror as Rick declared quickly, "Time to go!"

he then led the others back to where they came from in a run, all quickly realising that the City of Hamunaptra was crumbling and falling. As they ran, Jonathan accidently fell and dropped the Book of Amun-Ra which slid and then sank into the dark waters, but he only got up and continued to run, much to Evy's dismay.

"You've lost the book!" She shrieked.

"Sorry, but no time to get it back!" Mickey cried out as he, Rick and Riku pulled her with them, and caught up with Jonathan, Axel and Tifa, racing through the tunnels which sand fell onto them, but they just continued to run and run, making it back into the treasure chamber, which Jonathan noticed again, and once again, his love for treasure kicked in.

"Oh, could we just-"

"No!" Axel and Tifa both shouted as they dragged him back to catch up with the others. Just before the door which was only six feet began to get lower, Riku and his group dove in and made it on the other side, though the same wasn't for Beni who had snuck back in to get more treasure earlier, and that he accidently switched on the destruction switch. Rick, seeing his former friend, tried to save him, but it was too late, as the doors closed, leaving Beni trapped on the other side.

"Good-bye, Beni." Rick muttered, before he got up and raced out with the others, while on the other side, despite that Beni made it back into the treasure room before he could get squashed...it's too bad that he'd just become the final meal of the Scarabs.

Finally, the group made it back out but continued to run as the pillers continued to fall all around them, and they all raced towards the entrance, and the ground gave away behind them. Some of the Camels joined them in the hurry, and finally, once at the safe distance, Riku, Mickey, Axel, Tifa, Rick, Evy, and Jonathan turned around to watch the City of the Dead sink into the sands and in the cloud of dust.

It was gone, and now just another sand dune.

Just then something touched Jonathan's shoulder and he screamed in fright, causing everyone to turn around in fright, only to have relieved expressions, as Ardeth and Terrance were both on two camels.

"Ardeth! Terrance! You're okay!" Mickey cried out happily in relief.

"Glad to see you guys safe and sound." Riku smiled in relief.

"Oh! Thank you. Thank you very much." Jonathan rubbed his chest, trying to calm his beating heart.

"You have earned the respect, and gratitude, of me and my people." Ardeth replied to the group who smiled in return.

"Ah, it was nothin'." Axel smirked with a shrug. Despite not having a heart, he found that he actually kind of liked the Medjai guy. While it was weird, he decided to go with it.

"You all did an execellent job, despite how it all started." Terrance smiled as well.

"Are you going with them?" Evy asked her superior.

"I could visit the village once and while. I'll be back in Cario within next week." Terrance promised, as he and Ardeth both did some sort of salute to the group, which Jonathan tried to repeat.

"And...yourself." Jonathan replied.

Ardeth and Terrance both then clicked their tongues and rode away on the camels back to their people, as the group waved him a goodbye.

"See ya real soon!" Mickey called out as he waved.

"Take care of each other!" Riku added.

"Stay out of trouble." Rick added.

"They're just…leaving us here." Jonathan sighed and then gave a sad chuckle. "Well, I guess we go home empty-handed…again."

"I wouldn't say that." Rick said. A moment later, he and Evy were kissing, which made Mickey smile and Riku chuckle and Tifa giggle.

Jonathan on the other hand, just rolled his eyes up, and grumbled, "Oh, please!" turning away from the romantic scene and walked over to a camel. "How 'bout you, darling?" he pulled the camel's face down and asked, "Would you like a little kissy wissy?" only for the camel to grunt in front of him and he waved his hand at the terrible stench. "Whoo! Oh."

"Say, where's Axel?" Tifa suddenly spoke up.

Realising that the redhead hasn't said another word, the others looked around and realized, to their confusion and concern, Axel had just disappeared as well.

"Where did he go?" Evy asked, concerned.

"I'm sure he's fine." Riku replied, realising that now that Vanitas and Imhotep were gone, that meant that he, Mickey, Tifa and Axel can finally leave this world behind. "He's probably gone back home himself. Probably not the kind of guy to say goodbye."

"In that case, then I guess now that this world is safe, it's time for us to get goin' too." Mickey concluded, while a little sad to leave their new friends behind.

"You're leaving too?" Evy asked, sounding sad.

"Well, our journey's not yet over." Riku began, "Besides, I gotta look out for Sora and the others."

"And I have to still look for Cloud." Tifa added.

"Don't worry. Even though we might not see each other for a while, nothing will ever drive us apart." Mickey told the trio of this world, "Our hearts are connected."

"Well then...you guys stay out of trouble yourselves." Rick told them wisely.

With a nod and with a promise to keep everything they learned a secret, the group went their seperate ways. Tifa went into one direction where a portal to her freedom opened up, leading her to her journey, Rick, Evy and Jonathan rode away back to Cario on their Camels, and finally, Riku and Mickey, both donning on their disguise Organization coats once more, find the path where they took to this place in the beginning and found themselves back on the crossroad.

When the duo turned back to pause, they discovered that the portal to the world of Egypt was gone and they were back on the path of the fork in the road.

"Well, that's that." Riku said at last.

Mickey nodded in agreement. He then turned to his friend with a curious expression, asking, "So Riku. What're you gonna name your new Keyblade?"

Remembering the new weapon that came to him in his time in need, while wondering why this new Keyblade came to him, thought about what to call it, before coming up with a good name, and finally answered after a moment, "I think I'll call it...the Way to Dawn." summoning his new Keyblade and gazed at it. Come to think of it, the new Way to Dawn Keyblade somewhat suited him better than the Kingdom Key which suited much better with Sora.

Mickey chuckled, saying, "The Way to Dawn...I like it!"

"Me too." Riku said in agreement, desummoning it for the time being, now being able to use two weapons. It gave him a bit of an extra boost to help Sora, Donald and Goofy.

The two companions shared a smile before deciding to take the road to their right, where they would eventually find themselves in Hollow Bastion and many more adventures yet to come.

* * *

As for Axel, he found himself back in Castle Oblivion, where he finally reached the entrance of the building and sighed. As much as he knew he should reveal the location of Riku and the King, as well as being troubled at the very thought that Riku was now a true Keyblade wielder, just like both King Mickey and Sora, and of course, Roxas and the newer member of the Organization, the redhead decided to give the two a day's head start and smiled.

"Nah, they deserve a break." Axel said to himself, opening a portal to RTC, "Besides...Sea Salt Ice Cream and Roxas are waiting for me." entering the portal to finally return to the Castle that Never Was. Plus, hehad to admit it, having a Keyblade did sound pretty cool. It's too bad Axel will never have one...

At least not as a Nobody, but that was another story.

* * *

 _In the not too distant future..._

"To Vanitas has perished." An old man muttered, having no hair but with golden eyes which narrowed as he sat on the throne of the Room that Never Was, with eleven others seated there as well.

Sighing, he decided to accept it. "It cannot be helped. Soon enough, Sora and his friends will soon meet their ends, and the X-Blade will be mine." he said to himself, cletching his fist.

Soon the real War was about to begin, and those who fought against him so many times will meet their final match against him in the promised area.

 _ **RECONNECT  
KINGDOM HEARTS.**_

* * *

 **A/N: Not the best ending and such, but I'd run out of ideas at this point for this story. None the less, the Mummy of Darkness is finally finished after a long time delay. I hope you liked how the last chapter turned out. See you in my other stories.**

 **May your Heart be Your Guiding Key.**


End file.
